My Computer Problem - my computer is speed down to a crawl

I told my friend about my computer is speed down to a crawl. How to speed up ?
He said, "The easiest method to 'speed up' a computer is to reformat and reload."
"What really happened to my computer" , I asked him back .

There are many factors that slow down a computer.
i. Maybe your hard drive is just full and has run out of places to put things. How to check hard drive space ?
Look up My Computer icon , double click at it > Right click on Drive C > Select Properties. How much free space you have on Drive C. If less then 20% free space left , you need to do something. Uninstall or remove unnecessary programs that you don't use or deleting files you no longer need. Another option is buy a new and large hard drive.

ii. Too much temporary file and cookies.
Disk clean up process will deleting Downloaded Program File, Temporary Internet File, Recycle Bin, Office Setup Files, Temporary Files, Publisher Temporary Files and Compress Old Files. How to run disk clean up ?
Click on the 'start' > Click 'All Programs' > Click 'Accessories' > 'System Tools' and select 'Disk Clean Up'. Select 'C drive' and click on OK. Check all the boxes and click on OK. It take a few minutes for the computer to search with a list of items to cleanup. The computer will ask you if you are sure you want to perform these steps and you want to go ahead and click on YES. The box will disappear when it finish.

iii. Run Disk Defragmenter.
You need to click on the 'start' menu >All Programs > Accessories > Click on System Tools > Disk Defragmenter. Click on your C Drive > Click the DEFRAGMENT Tab at the bottom left of the box.
I hate this process because it take more than half an hour.

iv. Virus infection.
You will need to open up Antivirus Software that you have installed on your computer. You need to check that your subscription has not expired and that the virus definitions are up to date. After you have determined that your Virus Scanner is up-to-date run a full virus scan.

v. Spyware activities.
Download and install SpyBot Search and Destroy . To run spyware scan must click on "Immunize" to immunize your computer > cllick on "Check for Problems". Let it run for an hour. When finished it will show you a list of infected items in red with check marks. Click on "Fix Selected items" > OK when done.

vi. Maybe Hard Drive Errors.
Double click MY COMPUTER > Right click C drive > select PROPERTIES > Click the TOOLS tab > Select CHECK NOW under the Error-Checking Section > Check both boxes > click OK.
It will show an error message that tells you it can not be run at this time. Click on YES. Shut down and restart your computer. Your hard drive will be scanned for errors when your computer start.

For me let the "expert" take a look at my computer problem. Do it at your own risk !

My Computer Problem - my computer take so long to shut down.

My computer problem :

To shutting down the computer , i used to click the 'turn off 'button and the message "Windows is shutting down" will display. It would take around 10 seconds to shut down. Now it can takes a long, long time for Windows to shut down. Why it happening? I'm using Window XP.

My "pang-yau" told me :

There could be several answer to this.

i. In shutting down, you computer must first close all running programs. If any applications running in the background at the same time and is using memory space - why of the slowdown. Applications are like little switches for they need to be turned off in order before total shutdown of that certain program. So, turn off all applications before shut down.

ii. Check the amount of memory (hard drive free space) you have left. Is it 70% full ? You need to upgrading to a larger hard drive to cease the problem.

iii. You must go through all your files. Is it loaded with hundreds of junk files. What is considered junk? Junk files are temporary files, internet files, cookies, etc. The more junk you have on it, the longer it takes to shut down. You need to do "disk cleanup". To do this you need to click "start" > programs > accessories > system tools > Disk Cleanup.
Do this everytime before shutting down and your computer will shutdown in less then ten seconds.

iv. The other thing that could cause this problem is your computer registery files all screwed up. To keep your Registery clean and optimized perfectly you need to use is "Advanced WindwsCare2 Personal". It easy to use and free.

v. You may have a virus or malware. You need to search, quarantine and remove them.

Hope this helps. If don't , give it to the expert .