<h1>Keep Your Computer Running Smooth</h1>
<h2>It Doesn't Matter Whether It Is A Cheap Desktop Computer Or  A Top Of The Line Gaming PC</h2>

If you have a car, you generally follow a maintenance schedule. You should
do the same for your computer. At least once a month, run Scandisk (for
Windows 9x) & Defrag. Once a week delete your Temporary Internet files.
Check daily for updates for your virus scanner. Keep your computer safe from
spills (liquid is NOT good for keyboards, this means coffee!). Not a good
idea to eat over your keyboard, crumbs can cause sticky keys. Just following
this routine should keep your computer in great shape.

<h3>Delete your Temporary Internet files</h3>

OK, what are Temporary Internet files and why should they be deleted? Every
time you go to a web site, a copy of what you see on your monitor is stored
in a special place on your computer. In theory this makes your web surfing
go faster. If you are on a dial up connection, this speeds up your surfing
if you return to a site you went to yesterday (or last week), your web
browser just accesses the copy stored on your hard drive. But after a while
the file that holds the Temporary Internet files can get so big it slows
your computer's performance.

So on with deleting those files. In Internet Explorer, click on the Tools
menu & select Internet options. Half way down is the button marked 'Delete
Files'. Go ahead & click on it.

Then put a check mark in the little white square that says 'Delete all
offline content' and click ok. Got an hourglass? Taking a long time for it
to go away? You really needed to delete those files. But you are not through
yet. To really finish the job you need to close all open windows for
Internet Explorer.

You can also delete the Temporary Internet files from the Control Panel.
Click on your Start button on your Desktop, select Settings & the Control
Panel. Look for the icon named Internet Options and use the same procedure
explained above. AOL users can delete their Temporary Internet files this
way. If you are using Netscape, click on Edit & select Preferences. On the
left side of the new menu that opens, click on the plus sign in front of
Advanced. Highlight 'Cache". In the same menu to your right, click on 'Clear
Memory' and then click on 'Clear disk cache'. Then close your browser.

(If you have noticed you can no longer save web pictures in any format
except .bmp, you may find you can now save them in the correct format.)

Delete the Windows Temp files. Disk Cleanup, located in System Tools should
delete your Windows Temp files, but Windows doesn't always delete all of
them. On Internet Explorer, under the Tools Menu there is an option "Clear Private Data".  Click that and a new panel opens giving you several options, one of which is temporary files.