Does it feel like your computer is beyond repair? Unless you are suffering from a catastrophic hardware failure, you can still get alot of life out of your computer. As time goes on, programs are installed and uninstalled and they leave behind remnants on your machine. Many programmers don't necessarily take the time to write an uninstaller that removes all traces of a program from your machine. That is why a program like CCleaner is a must have application for everyone. Our computers can build up gunk from spyware, viruses, and fragmented files over time as well resulting in a machine that feels sluggish. Fear not! We can fix this and breathe some life back into your machine! Let's get our Geek on!

The most important step is to back up your important files. You can either burn your files to a CD/DVD or you can back them up to an external hard drive. The easiest way is to back up to a hard drive, and this is the way that I recommend for this procedure. Burning your data to a DVD works perfectly fine as well, it only takes longer. What is an important file? Make sure to back up everything in your Documents folder (My Pictures, Music, Videos, etc.). Once you have done this, confirm that it is all there. Then make sure to back up your favorites, anything on your desktop that you may want, and any sort of downloaded programs that you may have accumulated. You don't have to back up any programs that you have the disks for.

Once you have backed up your data, take an hour off. Seriously. Relax and think for a bit and then come back to your machine to make sure that you have EVERY piece of data you want is backed up. Once you are sure that it is backed up and works, you are ready to begin the restoration process! Are you excited? You should be! Your computer will be much faster when we are done!

Grab your Windows disk (or your Recovery disk) and insert it into your drive. Restart your computer. It will now boot into your Windows Installation. When you reach the option to choose to Repair or Install, choose Install. You will come to a screem that lets you choose the location to install Windows. At this screen, select your C: drive and choose to format the drive. Don't Quick Format, do a full Format. Once that is done, simply follow the steps, enter your serial number and you are finished installing Windows!

Once Windows is installed, let it download all of the necessary updates from Windows update. Go ahead and make yourself some dinner as this may take awhile. Once it is done, go ahead and install the updates and reboot your machine. Once that is taken care of, start putting your files back on your computer. Once your files are back on, begin installing your most important applications. A tip: only install the applications as you need them! This will help prevent clutter and keep your system feeling fast.

Guess what? You are done! It's faster isn't it? It sure as heck is! Let's explore some ways to keep it that way. Be sure to check out my article on secure computing habits to help prevent malware from getting on your machine. Also make sure to read the page on software to prevent problems. This is a list of programs, almost all are free, that will keep your computer in tip-top shape! One last thing to do:
Hug your favorite Geek! It makes our day!