Windows Must-Dos (all free)

This guide will:

1. Provide you with the information to keep your computer fast, clean & virus-free 2. Teach you how to do everyday computer activities more efficiently
3. Save you hundreds of hours of time, hassle and headache

What you need:
-A decent internet connection
-About an hour
-Willingness to be more efficient (assumed, as you are on this blog)

What you get:
-A leaner, meaner, faster machine
-Thousands of hours in increased productivity*
-Immunization of your machine against viruses, trojans, malware, spyware and unwanted start-up values

*Assuming you will live at least 10 more years, and use your computer ~2 hrs/day

Background
Every Windows machine requires work to keep it fast, functional and virus/spyware free. Even if you don't ever use the internet, windows will eventually bog down your system with shadow copies, system restore files, disk fragments, random clutter (temp files, prefetch data, etc) and erroneous registry keys.

Not to fear! It is easy to maintain your computer if you know how (and you are about to).

Clean Windows & Immunize!

1. Download.com is your friend!
Use it to get the following:
CCleaner (short for "crap cleaner")
AVG Anti-virus
Ad-Aware
Spybot Search & Destroy!

2. Use lots of Soap
Download and run the best free virus-killer
Install AVG, Ad-Aware, CCleaner and Spybot. Leave CCleaner alone for now.
Depending on the speed of your computer, run all 3 (or one by one), allowing Spybot to install TeaTimer, backup your registry and immunize your system.
When they are done have no fear in clicking "fix these issues." All you will lose is the evil spyware on your machine.

Congratulations! You have made your internet and network faster, and have stopped evil companies from stealing your identity.

3. Throw out the Garbage
Hold down the CTRL key then press "a." Let go.
Hold down CTRL and press "c." Let go.
Now press the Windows Start key (the flag), type "notepad," and press enter.
CTRL "v"
CTRL "s" & name this whatever you want and save it to the desktop.

Congratulations, you just performed a somewhat complex action without the mouse. +1 for efficiency.

Finish all miscellaneous projects you are working on, close your internet browser and close all other programs (except notepad and CCleaner).

Unless you have a particular attachment to your browsing history (which is different than bookmarks), you can click "Run Cleaner" in CCleaner. This will clear temporary files, your recycling bin, error reporting, the system's memory of all that text you just pasted into notepad, and cookies/internet history.

When it's finished, look at how many MBs (or GBs) of efficiency you just gained (displayed under "Cleaning Complete.")

You can now use CCleaner to fix your registry (click "Registry," or, if you are more advanced, use the "Alt" + "Tab" shortcut to select CCleaner, and press "g" then "s".) After scanning press "Fix" and backup if you wish.

The next step is going to be the most fun.
You know all of those programs that start when you turn on your computer? Like MSN Messenger, AIM, etc.? We are about to slay them.
They will no longer start without your direct consent.
In the "Tools" window click "Startup" and look at how inefficient your computer is being.

Silly Windows, I don't need half of these things.
You can pretty safely disable ALL of these things, (because it's easy to re-enable them), but I would suggest leaving things that you want, like SpybotSD Tea Timer (this maintains your registry values and prevents programs from editing it without your permission, so no new program will ever put itself in this list without your knowledge), Battery Monitor, Kernel & Hardware Abstraction Layer, and anything that has it's home file in C:\Windows.

Now all that's left is a few system errands.
Press the Start key and right click on "Computer" Then click "Properties"
On the left, click "System Protection"
Now you can click "Configure," and turn off System restore and delete your restore points. This will give you countless GBs of storage back. Remember to run the restore or backup your system every once in a while.

You may wish to Defragment your machine, but I suggest instead converting to Flash.

4. Be a Machine
Read the post "Efficiencize" (coming soon)