help with pc

i dont know much about pcs so i thought id ask for help here.
iv been noticing my pc is abit slow latelly, and i think its because my windows startup has too many programs activated. i made a search on the internet and found how to de-activate them (start-run-msconfig.exe), but then i honestly have no idea wich itens to check or not cause that all looks like chinese to me i tried the net again, and found a site with a list of required and not required aplications at the startup, but i dont want to touch anything and then "POOF", and i lose everything on my pc lol so can anyone help please? i'd like to know if that site is reliable and if not what can i do...?

thnx and sorry if my english is not the best but my brain doesnt work well at 2am (almost lol)

If you go to MSConfig and "Startup", there's nothing _too_ important there. And besides, it doesn't really delete anything, it just disables them. If you really want to disable something, you'll need to edit the registry.

But before you start disableing stuff from the start up, I suggest you run scan disk and defrag and some free registry cleaner/compressor.

Plus, delete all the files you don't need from the HD you've got Windows on.

Ice

thanks Ice, i defraged it and it looks like its new again, i dont think i need to do anything else anymore. thank you

Well you really should defrag every week or two, depending on how much you use your pc that is.

well i use my pc everyday at night, and abit more on weekends, and i dont think i ever defraged it since i have this one god its so boring to keep everything right, antivirus, antyspyware, defrag, blah blah blah...

Well don't bother with it and see how long you can keep your pc working.

If you mainly use your pc for surfing the net then you don't need to defrag as often, but if you do a lot of work and save a lot of files and such then you do need to defrag more often.

yeah i save alot of stuff, and d alot of stuff on the pc. damn technology, can't it just work by itself and dont give me headaches? LOL

Well if you leave your pc on overnight you could schedule the tasks to run when you're asleep, and set them to run every week at the same time.

if i leave it on i cant sleep, its right next to my bed lol nah i think i'll have to take some time to do that stuff frequently from now on...

I never thought I'd be able to sleep with mine on, it's next to my bed too, but I got used to it. Now I find it hard to sleep without it on.