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"When your PC starts its steady decline into sloth-like speeds, the first thing you\u2019d love to do (besides beating it Office Space-style) is head straight to the mall for a fancy new machine. But the reality is there are easy changes you can make to speed up your computer. \nSEE ALSO: 10 Gchat Tricks and Tips for Power Users\n\nFrom startup to surfing to gaming, here are five ways you can clean up an old PC to make it look young again.\n1. Speed Up Your Startup\nIf an entire pot of coffee can brew in the time it takes for your computer to boot, it\u2019s time to make some changes. Most likely your computer is not slow \u2013 it\u2019s the dozens of programs turning on during startup that are slowing it down.\nDownload a comprehensive tool like Autoruns to easily disable certain programs during your startup. Or try Windows\u2019 slightly less thorough, built-in utility, MSConfig. To find it, go to Search or Run under Start and type \u201Cmsconfig.\u201D Under the \u201CStartup\u201D tab, uncheck the boxes of the programs you don\u2019t need to run every time your computer is turned on, for instance, iTunes or your printer. If you don\u2019t recognize a program, leave it be. Restart your computer and watch it fly.\n2. Clear It Out\nIf painfully slow surfing is your main problem, there are a couple quick changes you can make. \nAre you an Internet Explorer user? Get rid of it. Google Chrome is the best browser on the market now, known for speedy surfing. Under Chrome, go to Clear Browsing Data and check the boxes of temporary Internet files like cookies, cache, download history and browsing history. \nTo take further precaution, try a program like CCleaner from Piriform. The free software program removes temporary files from all of your browsers, as well as Windows and the registry, to make your PC run faster.\n3. Slim Down\nThis involves more than just uninstalling programs you don\u2019t use anymore. If you\u2019re not totally committed to the usual suspects, like Windows Media Player and Microsoft Office, switch to something that requires less computing power. Free applications can easily replace go-to programs, while speeding up your PC and giving you additional features at the same time.\nVLC Media Player is a lightweight, open source media player that rips DVDs, streams video and recognizes any unprotected media format. FoxIt Reader, an alternative to Adobe Reader, does more than just open PDFs all while using less RAM. Edit documents, open multiple PDFs in tabs and more. AbiWord, a free and open source word processor, and Apache\u2019s Open Office, a free and open source full-fledge suite, can easily fill the void of Microsoft Office.\n4. Automate Your Updates\nUpdates are annoying. It\u2019s easy to click \u201Cremind me later\u201D and avoid the notifications, until you\u2019re so frustrated with your computer that you finally set aside an entire afternoon to update everything. \nLet\u2019s solve this. Go to My Computer &gt; Properties &gt; Automatic Updates. Make sure this is set to Download and Install Automatically. To completely cover your bases, find out if any programs need to be updated manually by downloading Update Checker from FileHippo.com. The fast and free program scans your computer and reports back with any available updates in seconds.\n5. Make Some Upgrades\nIf you\u2019re into gaming, a $150 investment in a graphics card might be worth your while. Forewarning: You\u2019ll have to toy with your motherboard to make this upgrade happen, but there are a lot of online tutorials you can follow. \nFinally, the most effective way to speed up your PC \u2013 which also requires tinkering \u2013 is to add more RAM (random access memory). You can find 4GB of memory for under $50 online. If you have less than 2GB (go to My Computer &gt; Properties to find out), an upgrade should be in your future.\u00A0\nImage courtesy of iStockphoto, pick-uppath"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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