Keeping a PC running smoothly is something that seems to elude a lot of people. Too many times I've seen people running their PC to a crawl and then wondering what the problem is and why everything seems to be running so slowly. Inexperienced users seem to pick up a huge amount of spyware and viruses, as well as a plethora of programs designed to eradicate such things. All things combined can turn even the fastest of machines into something resembling a computer built in 1990. Hopefully I can give a few words of advice that'll help keep your PC fast and healthy.

Most mistakes that people make when using PCs are made browsing the Internet. Bad surfing habits can seriously affect your PC and load it with junk and spyware. These range from small programs that run in the background relaying data about your Internet use to full-blown viruses. Obviously a PC that is infected with either isn't going to run so well. Too many background processes and it'll start to put too much load on your RAM when performing intensive tasks, such as gaming or photo manipulation. Your computer will eventually have to use portions of the hard disk as overflow memory and you'll notice a big slowdown.

To ensure that you don't pick up malicious programs I would recommend using Firefox to browse the web. As Internet Explorer is by far the most widely used browser it is the one that the most viruses are written for. Using Firefox will cut out a lot of the attacks that you can be affected by. However, Firefox is second to Microsoft's program and you'll still need to be aware. Try not to visit less-than-reputable sites with a lot of low budget flash adverts and pop-ups. Never click yes to anything that does pop up, and ignore any messages that try to alert you about the condition of your PC. These are scare tactics to get inexperienced users to download unnecessary software, clogging up your PC.

Many people swear by their virus protection software, claiming that it helps keep their PC clean. I've kept my PC virus-free for over seven years without a single piece of virus protection software. I found that having it constantly running in the background and checking everything slowed my PC down. Constant update and checking popups started to get annoying as well and in the end I decided I could do without it. So long as you're careful while online you can do just fine without any virus protection software. Without it, your PC will run much faster and smoother.

A lot of people seem to get infected with spyware when opening malicious emails. The key here is to have a decent spam filter on whatever email client that you're using, and having a good eye for what to open and what to delete. My general rule is that if I don't know who the sender is then I just delete the mail without reading it. Avoid emails from friends that seem suspicious as well, as often a virus will send itself to everyone in the infected person's address book. Don't follow any links or open any files. Above all else, never ever download or run a .exe file. It's almost guaranteed to be a virus.

Make sure you defragment your hard disk around once a month. If the data becomes to fragmented then it'll take a long time for the head to read the data from the platters, slowing the PC again. By defragmenting you're keeping the files arranged more orderly on your disk and therefore making it easier to read. Many people never even bother doing this and then find that their PC takes ages to read files and get going.

Make sure that you don't install too many useless programs. Many programs will launch on startup and sit in the background, not really doing anything until prompted. Although they feel like they're not there they're still using up valuable system resources. Allow this to build up and you'll end up with a slow PC. A good way to tell if you've got a lot of these programs is by checking the number of icons in the bottom right of the screen, try to have as few as possible.

Keep Windows up to date. This is vital as often in updates there are crucial security updates that can make a world of difference. The same applies to browsers and any anti-virus software you have installed. By making sure everything is fully up to date you're far less likely to encounter problems later on.

Keeping a PC running well isn't a difficult thing to do, it just requires a little care. Making sure you get things right to start with will help you with the headaches that occur with virus infections and computers slowing to a crawl. Hopefully in the future you'll look after your PC well and have a fast machine that runs smoothly.