If you are lucky enough to be running Windows XP instead of Vista, you still might be wondering if there are any ways to squeeze a little extra performance out of your system. Other than hardware upgrade, there are several software tweaks you can make that will help your computer run more smoothly. Here are just a few.


Speed Tips

C Cleaner. C Cleaner is a little program that will help you clean out extraneous entries that might have cropped up in your registry. Many times when you delete a program, registry keys could be left behind. Tracking them down manually can be tedious, this program scans your system and does it for you. It also does the same for your hard drive, potentially freeing up GBs worth of space.

Service Pack 3. One of the simplest ways to speed up your system is to install Service Pack 3. Some people report up to 10% performance improvements as a result.

Remove Spyware / Malware. This is the old standby. Adware, Malware and Spyware will slow down your computer and can cause all sorts of other problems besides. Take some time to download an Adware scanner like Spybot or AdAware and clean your system.

NTFS instead of FAT32. Make certain that your hard drive is using the NTFS file system. To convert to NTFS, use the following steps:

    * Command Prompt
    * Type “convert [drive letter]: /fs:ntfs” (i.e. “convert C: fs/ntfs”)
    * Agree to dismount drive

TweakXp. For advanced users, TweakXP can be an incredible boon. TweakXp makes it easy to turn on and off dozens of