I try to keep my computer reasonably tidy. I defragment, I delete unnecessary files using the wondows cleanup utility, and I regularly check for spyware and adware. My firewall works wonders and I'm always up to date with my security patches.

My Dad's computer, on the other hand, is struggling. It's old, it's not very powerful, and it's s l o w. Really slow.

So I was looking into ways I can try and speed it up next time I go and see them in November. And as well as all the things I already knew about, one of my colleagues suggested System mechanic by iolo. It comes with a 30-day fully functional free trial, so I thought I'd download it and chck it out for myself.

Well, it's fantastic. it tidies up your registry, it cuts down the programs you have to enter on startup, and it defrags everything. But best of all, oit gets rid off all the files you don't need (tmp files, zero-size files and even duplicates).

Believe it or not, my supposedly tidy computer had 150MB of rubbish on its hard drive. Which however you look at it, is quite a lot.