Welcome to PC Performance HQ!

Here you will find information, recommendations,instructions and videos to improve your PC's overall security, performance and speed, from booting up, running applications, browsing the web and shutting down.

Work your way from one page to the next. Take what you need from each. Download and watch the videos. Use the links to download and run the free tools, and see how much better your PC runs.

No guarantees here, every PC is different and will react differently, but overall, you should see improvements. If you follow the suggestions and maintain your PC on a regular basis, your PC will run well for a long time.

Who am I to be giving this advice? I have been building, upgrading and repairing PC's and laptops for the last 30 years, basically since the dawn of the PC era. I am Microsoft certified, and have extensive training in most Windows versions since version 3.11. I have taught hardware and software maintenance in business for over 25 years.

My clients rely on me to keep their computers running smoothly and without issues. Those that follow my advice don't need to call me often, and when they do, it is usually for me to build them a new computer because they want to give their old one to another family member!

Most of the things illustrated on these pages are not secrets, they can be found scattered over the Web. I have attempted to gather the best of them in one place, and organize them is some sort of logical fashion.

The topics we cover include Anti-virus programs and the absolute need to have one; paid versus free and the advantages of one over the other; my recommendation for a paid program; and a list of decent free anti-virus programs.

Another page discusses the need for an anti-spyware application - is it really necessary? Why I think it is an excellent idea to have one (and sometimes more than one) available for the sneaky adware and spyware that can evade even the most robust anti-virus's defenses and how that software can help you avoid potential disaster. It will happen, the bad guys are getting smarter and sneakier all the time, so learn how to minimize your risk.

Continuing on, a discussion of the Windows Registry and how it affects the performance of the PC. What is in it, how it is organized, and most importantly, how to care for it. Registry corruption is one of the main causes of Windows' boot failures and the most common reason for having to reinstall Windows. A little care in this area can go a long way toward avoiding problems.

Busting some myths and proving others concerning files and folders and how they affect performance is next on the agenda. Does deleting those big picture files really help speed up the pc? Do the number of files I have on my PC affect its performance or is that just malarkey? If you delete files, which ones should you delete and which ones should you not? The answers to the above are the same - it depends! Also discussed here are the file management utilities (with an emphasis on the free ones!) that can help keep file clutter to a minimum.

No discussion of PC performance and security would be complete without mentioning the browser. Maybe you have more than one. Why have more than one? Which ones should you use and why? How can you keep them working at peak efficiency? Some answers here and where to go inside them to have them performing at their best all the time.

Some final words and videos to help computer performance are covered on the Miscellaneous page. There are tweaks here that, while they can provide a significant performance boost in some computers, don't fall under any of the major categories listed.

A final word: I am an affiliate for some of the products listed on these pages, and will get paid if you purchase them. With that being said, however, I always endeavor to find the absolute best products to use in my business, those are the products I actually use, and I am an affilate for those products simply because I have found they are the absolute best.