We live in a fast paced world and we are always looking for the fastest way of doing things. We barely have time to wait for our burger in the fast-food restaurant, coffee preparation, our microwave popcorn to pop, so you have time to wait for a slow computer?

Except to add more RAM to your computer, there are six steps you can take to accelerate the performance of your computer. Most of these steps will speed up your computer, for free, as are applications already installed on your computer.

One of the first steps you should take is to empty the Recycle Bin. It is easy to do. Simply place the cursor to the icon for the Recycle Bin on your desktop, right click and select "Empty Recycle Bin."

Then open your Internet Explorer, go to Tools, Internet Options. Click "Delete Cookies" then "Delete Files." In the window that appears, select "Delete all offline content" and click OK. Once done, click OK to close the Internet Options window and close your Internet Explorer.

These two steps are faster and simpler and that's why I left the first form. Then we will be doing a disk cleanup. To do this, click Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup. The disk cleaning function will now start calculating the amount of space that will be able to release. Once completed, will give you a list of files to delete. You should already have some files checked, but you can go through the list and mark all the files you want to delete, and then click OK.

Now is the time to do a disk defragmentation. This can be a lengthy process so you should probably set this at a time when you have other things going on. For example, set up, then go see his favorite TV show or go mow the lawn, or go workout. You get the idea. To begin, go to Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter. Click Scan. If you're lucky, you get the "do not need to defragment this volume" of calls, but more than likely, you will need to click "Defragment." If so, click it, go do something else and come back in an hour or two.

Once done, it's time to run a spyware scan. Most people do not realize how easy it is to get infected with spyware, so regular analysis is highly recommended. You can use any anti-spyware program you choose. You should know that no program gets rid of everything. To play it safe, you must run at least three different programs. You might be surprised by what they find. You may have had spyware running on your computer and not even know. Once the analysis is completed, and everything is taken care of spyware, it is time for the last step.

This last step is to run a virus scan. Hopefully you have an anti-virus program installed on your computer. If not, very advisable to get one as soon as possible. Once the antivirus program is configured, go ahead and run it. This may take 20 minutes to a couple of hours depending on the number of files stored on your hard drive so that once again, put it, then do something else. Come back in an hour.

Once all steps are complete. Restart your computer and you will be amazed at how completely he now feels agile. It's a good idea to follow step 6 at least once a week (some steps you can even set up automatically). By doing this, you will keep your computer to perform almost as it did when you first bought it.