It's a good idea to periodically defrag your harddisk in Windows XP. This will increase the performance of the orperating system.

To run the Defrag utility go Start-> All Programs ->Acessories -> Systems Tools -> Disk Defragmenter.

Note: To speed up a defrag operation  restart the system before you launch the Defragmenter application. This allows the operating system to clear out the swap/paging file and  focus strictly on defragmenting  the necessary data on the hard disk without having to stop and manage a huge swap file.

More advanced users can configure the defrag operation to occur immediately at startup. You can do so easily with a simple registry edit.

Note: Editing the Windows Registry is not without risk. Please  back up your Windows Registry before you do any editing.

Follow these steps to start a defrag operation immediately upon startup:
* Launch the Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).
* Go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce

* Right-click the RunOnce subkey and select New | String Value.
* Name the value Defrag and press [Enter] twice.
* Type Defrag.exe c: /f in the Value Data text box and click OK.
* Close the Registry Editor and restart Windows.

The defrag operation will begin when you type your password and press [Enter]. (Values added to the RunOnce key are removed immediately after the command has been run.)

Free software

These days there are many free software programs available  which can save you money. These free applications often match and sometimes  surpass paid-for software in functionality and performance. If you have a little time and patience you will be pleasantly surprised.

Examples of  free software include:

anti-virus (avg.com),

collaboration tools (mindmeister.com),

project management (nozbe),

file-transfer (Filezilla),

blogging (wordpress) ,

content management (joomla),

media players (videolan),

Shareaza (a peer-to-peer file sharing client),

PdfPrinter (converts MS Word to .pdf files),

Open Office Suite ( a full Office suite equivalent to MS Office but free.)

Apache web server and MySQL database server.

The list goes on! This website is an example of  WordPress in action. A good place to obtain free software is from Source Forge.

Free software is often cover by the GNU General Public License.  What you, as a user should be aware is that free software  does not come with any warranties. It is upto to you to test it. Let this not put you off from giving free software a go. Most of the popular products have huge forums and support groups and the developers take pride in making their products work well.  Just remember even Microsoft who charges you a lot of money  also have a get out clause.  They are not liable  if their products damage your system or do not work as expected. You agree to this whenever yo install/use their software.

Have fun trying some free apps out and may the force of the forge be with you. 😀