Recently, I was getting more and more frustrated with my PC. It was taking over 20 minutes to start up and would frequently crash if I tried to load more than one program at the same time.

After researching online I found a number of brilliant freeware applications that have improved my computer's performance no end. I can now run 3 or 4 programs at once, and start up time is under 3 minutes.

Below I list the completely free applications I used for my speed up. Download them now for immense improvements in your PC's performance.

Clean up the registry
Your computer may be trying to load up 100s or even 1000s of files that no longer exist. Resolve this by downloading CCleaner from www.ccleaner.com. Run the registry cleaner and be amazed at how much junk it finds; be even more amazed at the new high speed of your computer. Also use CCleaner to clean up any excess files on your computer.

Defrag the Hard Drive
Windows comes with a free defragment tool (this can be found start menu>all programs>accessories>system tools). A faster and more effective freeware program is IObit SmartDefrag, downloadable from www.iobit.com. Use the 'optimize' setting and marvel at the results.

Tame those resource drainers
Some programs drain all your system resources, causing priority clashes between applications and system crashes. Prevent this from happening using ProcessTamer, free from www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/proctamer .

Free up RAM
RAM, the memory which most affects your computer's speed, gets overused and clogged up by certain applications. Claim it back and free up your PC using RAMBooster. Download it free from www.sci.fi/~borg/rambooster .