You may have entertained the idea of replacing your computer with a new one because everything is getting so slow it's intolerable.



However you may not have to do that if you switch over to some apps that are nice and speedy.

Basic maintenance

Before tackling the task of using alternative software, it's a good idea to "clean up" your computer first. You can do this by using free software called CCleaner, available at www.ccleaner.com. Install it, close all your open apps (except CCleaner), run this and reboot. Most people notice a notable improvement in overall operation after running this registry cleaner application. I suggest running it at least once a week.

Web browsing

Internet Explorer 7 is one of the "heaviest" (if not the heaviest) web browsers out there. Yes, it's free but it's also slow. Consider using free alternatives such as Mozilla Firefox (www.mozilla.com/firefox) or Opera (www.opera.com). Both of these browsers are well known to run circles around IE, performance-wise.

Instant messaging

The worst as far as bloated instant messaging applications go is the Yahoo! Messenger. This application is extremely "heavy" and packed full of things you probably never use. Other from-service IM clients such as Windows Live Messenger and AIM are also in desperate need of losing weight.

You can use alternative IM clients or just your web browser to accomplish the same chat capability.

Try these out:

* Trillian @ www.trillian.cc (the basic version is free)

* Pidgin @ www.pidgin.im

* Miranda @ www.miranda-im.org (one of the lightest you'll ever use - it even works on Windows 95!)

* Digsby @ www.digsby.com

* Meebo @ www.meebo.com (web-based in-browser only)

* aMSN @ www.amsn-project.net (for Windows Live/MSN connectivity only)

* AIM Lite @ http://x.aim.com/laim (AIM only - produced by AOL but without ads and lightning quick!)

Office Applications

Ever since version "2002" of Microsoft Office the software has become extremely bloated and slow. However you do have alternatives.

Microsoft Office 2000 - It is the luck of the draw whether you can find this software or not as it is difficult to locate (you can't purchase it any longer). I was lucky enough to still have a copy from years ago with my valid product key and I use this suite it regularly. Remember, this is a year-2000 version so it was programmed for computers of the time. On present-day PCs this version of Office runs lightning quick and I absolutely love it. In addition, you can also achieve even greater speed if you have Microsoft Office 97. And yes, documents created by MS Office 97 are still considered "standard", so even if you use software that old, everybody you trade documents with will be able to read them without issue.

OpenOffice @ www.openoffice.org - This is a free suite of office apps that have proven to be stable and work great. While not as speedy as MS Office 2000 it does get the job done, and you can't beat the price tag.

AbiWord @ www.abiword.com - This is a free word processing application. It's one of the smallest and fastest out there and works great.

ThinkFree @ www.thinkfree.com - This is a 100% web-based office suite. It looks and performs almost exactly like an installed application. You will be amazed at how good ThinkFree works.

Digital photo editing

The bundled software that came with your digital camera is usually always "heavy" on use and has a tendency to crash more often than not. Here are a few free alternatives:

Picasa @ http://picasa.google.com - Whether or not you choose to use the Picasa web service is entirely up to you, but bear in mind the editing capabilities of the free Picasa application are powerful and moreover easy.

Windows Live Photo Gallery @ http://photogallery.live.com - While not as good as Picasa, this particular app is also free and has the ability to publish photos directly to the Flickr web service that many people use (including myself).

Remember...

Before you toss that old PC out - clean it up and try some alternative lighter software. You might find that your older computer box still has a few years of life left in it after all.