General Hints 

1  System Tray
Sitting in your system tray is a load of programs that really have no right to be there. They are taking up valuable resources. Remove things that you rarely use or can get to just as easily from the start menu. Remove such items as Real Jukebox and other multimedia applications that are only there to provide slightly quicker access to the program.

2  Drivers
Your probably already fed up of hearing this word but drivers are constantly updated to improve compatibility and speed. Updating to the latest drivers is the easiest way of getting a bit more speed from your PC. Remembering of course that if the new drivers don't work well then revert back to the one you had before (they are not always perfect :)

3  Extra Hardware
Connecting hardware that you don't use is also taking away your system resources. USB for example has a fixed bandwidth despite the amount of devices it is connected to. This means that the more devices connected to USB at one time and that you are using, the slower the USB will run.

4  IDE Channels
The layout of your IDE Channels is very important. For example if you are running 2 Hard Disks, A DVD Drive and a CD-RW for example, you would not connect the CD/DVD to the same IDE channel as a Hard Disk. This is because the CD Drives could actually slow down the hard disk. On top of this you should always set the fastest component to the master setting and the slower one to slave.

Modem 

1  Cable
Extension cables can cause a small loss of signal and reduced connection speeds. Try to keep the cable from your modem to the phone socket as short as possible.

2  Set it up
Sounds simple enough but setting up your modem correctly has a big effect. First make sure you have the correct manufacturers drivers installed and not the windows generic drivers. Secondly under the modem properties you want to make sure the port is set to maximum speed of 115,200. Also for increased performance use the compressed data and flow control (hardware) options.

3  Download Apps
Downloading files does not use up all of your available bandwidth. To get increased download speed, use a download application such as Download Accelerator. Also Getright and GoZilla can schedule and resume your downloads.

4  No Need for IE
You can speed up your browsing experience by switching away from Internet Explorer. You can try a browser like Opera which gets rid of a lot of unnecessary features in favour of speed. Unfortunately these browsers don't have the compatibility for the more hi-tech sites.  

Memory

1  Swap File
There is quite a lot of debate about how you should set up your swap file and what is the best way of doing it. I can only offer an opinion on this rather than fact. My settings and what I recommend is a fixed swap file size (minimum and maximum set the same). The size will depend on your individual needs.

2  Virtual Memory
Windows memory management is one of the major grumbles by PC users and experts. Windows likes to hold on to memory even when the programs and library files are no longer being used. It also like to use the swap file when there is no real need to do so. By Installing Cacheman you have the ability to control both these features and more. 

3  Save Memory
Cut down on memory intensive programs running at the same time. Opening loads of IE windows as well as graphics applications and Office application may grind your PC to a halt unless you have enough memory to handle it. if you only have 64Mb then keep it simple to one thing at a time, especially in windows ME and 2000.

Hard Drives

1  Defragment it!
Worthy of the exclamation mark, as it cant be emphasised enough. For a quick and cheap speed boost to your computer this is the best tip. When the computer accesses your hard disk it reads the data from many different places on the disk. Due to writing and deleting files on your hard disk get fragmented (split up into pieces) and written all around the disk. By Defragmenting your disk these files can be put back together and disk access times greatly improved. You can use windows defragmenter, but this is a little slow. If you want to splash out a bit money then the Norton Speed Disk is my recommendation for a defrag program, it is a speedy way to defrag your hard disk plus it has other features.

2  DMA
In the system properties select your hard disk and make sure that the DMA check box is ticked. DMA transfers are far faster because they don't use the CPU to send data. Select DMA and then restart the computer. if when you go back into the properties of your hard disk, the DMA box is still checked then DMA is enabled.

3  Separate Channels
If you are running only 1 Hard disk and 1 CD/DVD then run them on separate IDE channels on separate cables. This will make sure that data transfer is never slowed down by the other device.

4  Correct Cable
Make sure that if you are running an UDMA 66/100 Drive that you have fitted it with the correct 80 pin cable rather than that of the conventional 40 pin cable. Both cable fit into the drives but only the 80 pin IDE cable goes above the older 33Mb/s standard. Running a 40 pin cable could be limiting your drive to 33Mb/s when it might reach a burst speed of 66Mb/s or above.

Graphics Card

1  Colour Depth
Reducing your colour depth can gain some graphics speed as you card doesn't have to store as many colours in memory and can display them faster. This is especially true in games. Running in 32bit colour might be pointless. Run your games in 16bit colour and honestly see if you notice much difference if you don't then run in that colour depth. You will probably get a quicker fps count and you might even be able to run the game in a slightly higher resolution for a clearer picture.

2  FSAA
This again is a question of preference, but now you get a lot of graphics cards with ability of FSAA (Full Scene Anti-Aliasing). If you run your games with this on all the time you might want to consider turning this off. Like the previous tip turn the feature off and run your games and honestly see whether it degrades your game playing experience. If it doesn't leave it off and get a load more fps than before.

3  Overclocking
Although overclocking is consider a little risky it is a free way for some more speed. Many card come with programs that allow you to add that bit extra speed to your graphics card CPU and memory speed. If you notice any glitches in the graphics its best to turn it down a little, but you will probably find you will get some free speed out of your card. If you need some overclocking utilities take a look at tweakfiles.

Printers

1  ECP Mode
If you don't have a USB printer then the best way to get speed from your printer is making sure that your printer port is set to ECP mode in the BIOS.

2  Spooling
Spooling your print jobs allows you to get on with other tasks while your printer gets on with its job. A queue is formed for all the documents you are printing. In your printer details select spooling and check the box that says "Spool print jobs so program finishes faster and start printing after first page is spooled.

3  Spool Data Format
If your printer supports EMF data format your computer will become free for you to use that little bit faster. Set the data format to EMF in the spool settings. 

4  Print in Draft
If you are only printing for your own personal use or the document isn't that important, then print in draft mode or economy mode. You will save a lot of ink and will print a lot faster as well. Draft mode does print a more of a gray colour than black but that shouldn't matter for a draft and if you are printing many pages then you will notice the difference in speed straight away.