5 free tools to speed up your computer.

AVG Anti-Virus
Among the first questions to ask after a sudden drop in computer performance is: "Have any applications been installed recently?" The answer is often: "Yes, a new anti-virus/security suite." The more the big name anti-virus companies try to do it all, the more we see their products slow down computers and frustrate the user. Grisoft's AVG provides all of the effectiveness with none of the slowdown. The AVG commercial version (free to try) costs about half of most others, and the home version is free. Any wonder that you can almost always get the "big name" apps for free (after rebate) these days?

TCP/IP Optimizer
One of the best kept secrets online is one of the easiest ways to speed up your computer. The Optimizer analyzes and adjusts with an intuitive interface making it easy to tune and optimize your Internet connection.

Spybot Search and Destroy
Sometimes spyware requires a one-two punch. For years, geeks and power users have used this free tool in addition to Ad-Aware to keep their computer spyware and adware free, and running at top speed.