1. Regular Spyware/Adware removal, defrags, and registry cleaning.2. Yearly defrags and updated drivers.
3. Upgrades (obviously)
4. Eliminate unnecessary services and programs.
YEARLY DEFRAGS?!?!?!?! YEARLY???????????
i defrag once a week, lol.
People always forget to use "Disk Cleanup" as well, normally you run Disk Cleanup and then Defrag right after.
Disk Cleanup is right in the same tab as Defragmenting.
start>all programs>accessories>system tools>disk cleanup
also, if you REALLY wanna get shit cleaned up, you can can set ALL your virtual memory away (set it to 0mb) then defrag and then reboot, then reset your cirtual memory to whatever you want.
Memory is by far the biggest upgrade you can make to increase system performance overrall. Especially moving from 512mb to 1gb or to 2gb and it's pretty cheap too.
also, you can go to start>run>type in "msconfig" and click the "startup" tab, you can disable programs that start up automatically when you boot your PC, almost any application you install will start itself once you boot up unless you tell it not to, this helps with bootup times as well.
gl!