Optimizing your computer

When it comes to boosting the performance of a computer, most people recommend defragging the harddrive once in a while. There are a few other tips I want to share with my fellow reader(s):

1. The page file on your harddrive is one the system uses to "page out" the memory resources that are not being actively in use. Your computer system gets slow if it needs to read from a heavily fragmented page file. This file is one of those that the system cannot defrag. The free PageDefrag tool from SysInternals.com can do that job for you.
2. One major reason for a low computer is that you have knowingly or unknowingly installed a bunch of junk onto it. Take the time to go through what you don't need from the Add/Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel (given you are running Microsoft Windows). One other place you want to check is the Manage Addons screen from the Programs tab in the Internet Options applet within Control Panel or Microsoft Internet Explorer.
3. If you know well about your computer, go over the started services on your computer. You can get to the list by running services.msc. There are a few running services that most home users don't need. And some of them could even be security concerns. I am not going to list which services I mean here. If you know well about your computer, you should already know which ones I referred to.
4. Many times a computer becomes slow simply because the legitimate software it runs was not written well enough. One example is a resident service that polls information in a tight loop. Two typically used resouces are registry and files. You can monitor the activities of the running software by using the free RegMon and FileMon tools from SysInternals.com. You will be surprised by how many activities that happen on the background while you use your computer.

If you have other good and rarely known tips, please share with others here.