Use Windows long enough and you’ll recognize that bloated, sinking feeling creeping in. Spyware and viruses pile up, registries get corrupted, drivers stop working or cause conflicts — eventually reaching that point where you want to just erase everything and re-install the entire system. After swearing to pay more attention to the links you follow and the software you install, you find yourself staring at a brand-new-all-over-again Windows desktop.

Your system is fresh and untarnished. Now what? Time to tweak it to your satisfaction!

Start by running Windows Update to make sure you’re up to date with all the patches and security updates and then follow our handy guide to get the most out of Windows.

Clear Out the Junk

If you’re installing Windows from the CD that came with your machine, you’ll likely end up with a bunch of trial copies of software you don’t need or want. That’s because some hardware manufacturers have distribution deals with software providers to sell Windows computers with trial versions of their apps installed by default. If you’re installing a retail copy of Windows you will most likely not have this problem.

You can use the built-in Add/Remove functionality bundled with Windows to clean up the cruft, but the freeware app Revo Uninstaller makes the process faster and easier. Revo actually manages to make the process somewhat fun with its “Hunter Mode,” which lets you drag a cross-hair onto any application to uninstall. Just aim it at your system tray, applications folder or where ever you see an app you don’t want.

Revo Uninstaller also sports a very nice startup manager, which lets you control which apps fire up when Windows boots.

Improve Your Security

There are a few steps you can take to make a Windows machine more secure right out of the box:

• Make sure that Windows Firewall is enabled. Open up the Control Panel and click “Security Center and find Windows Firewall. Make sure it’s set to “on” and then click okay.

• Install Mozilla Firefox as a more secure alternative to Internet Explorer. If you’re not a fan of Firefox, at least make sure you have some decent anti-virus and anti-spyware software, because exploits tend to be aimed more squarely at the more popular IE than at the lesser-used Firefox.

• Get some anti-spyware and anti-virus software. There are hundreds of possibilities, but we’re partial to AVG for virus protection.

• Windows Defender is a free anti-spyware app from Microsoft and, while it isn’t perfect, it’s free and it’s much better than nothing. Also worth grabbing are SpywareBlaster and Spybot Search & Destroy.

None of these three are really enough alone, but running all three should cover most of your bases. If you find yourself constantly infected with spyware consider one of the commercial solution like PC Tools Spyware Doctor ($30).

Keep in mind that you should only run one anti-virus program, but it’s a good idea to have a several spyware detecting and removing applications. Be sure to set whatever apps you choose to scan your computer frequently and remember to keep them updated.

Drivers

If you’ve never paid much attention to drivers, consider yourself lucky. Drivers are small chunks of software that control and communicate with a device or part of your computer — for instance, there are video card drivers, drivers for mice and cameras and joysticks, et cetera.

Both XP and Vista ship with common drivers installed for most of the things you’ll need, but the driver included with your base installation may be out of date. If you don’t bother to get the latest version, you may find yourself encountering sub-par performance or dealing with bugs that have already been fixed.

Even you don’t have a lot of peripherals, you should still upgrade your video driver — especially if you’re installing an older, manufacturer-specific version of Windows XP. There’s a really good chance you won’t have the latest video drivers since a lot has changed since XP was released.

The two most common video drivers are those from ATI and NVIDIA. Find out what video card your computer uses and then search the manufacturer’s site to download the right driver for your video card.

Peripherals should be next on your list. If, like most people, you’ve got a printer, scanner and digital camera, you’ll want to head to the device maker’s website and find out what the latest driver for your model is. Compare it to your current version and upgrade if necessary.

Tip: You may want to consider a driver manager like DriverMax, which will monitor your drivers and prompt you to download updates as they become available. A handy way to stay on top.

Free Productivity Software

There are thousands of software packages out there covering just about anything you’d ever want to do with your computer. Here are a few we like:

• Photos - Google’s Picasa is the best breed when it comes to managing your photos. (IG Opinion. For proper viewing in a slideshowthen Irfanview is a good program)
• BitTorrent - µTorrent is a popular lightweight choice. Azureus offers more options, but will also eat up more processor and memory resources.
• Chat - It’s hard to beat the multi-protocol options of Pidgin. (IG Opinion. Pidgin has many problems as does the other alternative of Trillian. Still better than having several apps running but in some cases it may just be preferrable)
• PDFs - doPDF is a great little utility that installs a virtual printer and lets you print any document as a PDF.
• CCleaner is a must have for sweeping out old and unnecessary files. (IG Opinion. A truer statement has never been made. get this program)
• Clipomatic is a nice way to make your clipboard more powerful.

Configure Windows Update

By default, the Windows Update tool for downloading patches and fixes from Microsoft is set to run automatically. There are a few reasons you might want to switch it to run manually — most users prefer the control, and there’s nothing worse than finding out an update is broken after it’s already installed.

Keep in mind that if you do turn off the auto-update feature, you will need to be diligent about running it by hand.

 [courtesy of wired]