Generally all this ‘make this faster’, ‘make that more efficient’ software does the exact opposite.

In general, registry cleaners cause more problems than they solve (I’ve lost count of how many repairs I’ve had to perform because someone used a registry cleaner). Internet speed optimizers more often than not slow your connection down. And system cleaners tend to cause errors with the operating system.

You are using Vista, so have that installed, pick a browser (personally I prefer Firefox 3 to IE, but its just a preference), pick your anti-virus software and leave it at that. Don’t install registry cleaners or internet speed up programs (with the one exception – if you are on dial up the service from On-Speed is fantastic). Stop doing the Disk Cleanup so often – its pointless. You are talking about clearing out a few KB from a hard drive with GB of storage.

Don’t defrag so often, its a waste of your time. If you have a big software installing/removing session or create/delete a lot of files you could consider defragging. But really once a month is plenty.

Computers only get slower because people insist on doing too much. If you installed your office software, chosen e-mail, ftp, chat and browsing programs, whatever photo/video software and games you wanted and then just used your computer, it would maintain its performance. Its only because people get into the habit of running system optimizing tools and removing programs if they stop using them, only to install them 3 weeks down the line that systems slow down.

I have numerous computers (both professionally and for personal use) and with the exception of my bench test systems and development systems none have ever needed reinstallations.