1. Automatic Updates were Turned Off. The system runs VISTA and had no updates for a year and a half. While VISTA can be very slow at the best of times, the updates (particularly the Service Packs) have a huge impact on speed and resources. So TURN ON AUTOMATIC UPDATES and install all updates form Microsoft when asked. It took me a day to apply all updates that have been released over the last year and a half.
2. Three different versions of Microsoft Office were installed. When there was a problem with reading Word attachments at least two different people tried to reinstall Office without uninstalling previous versions. If you have a problem with a program, DO A COMPLETE UNINSTALL FIRST BEFORE YOU TRY TO REINSTALL.
3. The Laptop had never been Defragemented. When I checked, the system was set up to run a Scheduled Defrag on a weekly basis (at 3:00am on a Wed morning) , but the problem was that my mother never left her Laptop on at night. So if you have an Automatic Schedule for Defragmentation, make sure you leave your PC on at night and that your Power Saving features don’t turn off the PC before it has a chance to do a Defrag.

The final point I would make, is that it is much easier to sort out a problem if three well meaning people, have not tried to fix the problem. Call in somebody in the computer business straight away. The good guys will have a quick look and let you know what the likely costs are before they do any work.

1. Close Programs that you are not using. The most common thing I find when somebody complains about performance is that they have a massive number of windows/programs open at the same time and they are not using most of them. The maximum number of windows you should have open is 4 or 5. I regard myself as a fairly heavy user and most of the time I have 3 windows open, my email, my calendar and either my browser or office. I regularly come across people with 10 plus windows open and wonder why their computer is running slow. Remember even if you are not using an open program, a significant amount of resources are allocated to it anyway.
2. Clean Up and Organise your files. On most computers at least 50% of the files are either no longer required, temporary files, out of date or simply rubbish downloaded from the Internet. Each time you try and open a file the computer has to search through all those files. That’s why you will see your disk light going mad for ages when you open a file. So do a bit of spring cleaning and get rid of files you don’t use and if you haven’t accessed them in ages put them onto backup cd’s.
3. Defragment your Hard Disks. OK, sorry about this but I have to get a little bit technical here. When you first save files on the computer they are stored in a very logical sequence that best uses the hard disk space and allows them to be retrieved very  quickly. As you use the computer and create more files, delete some and edit others the hard disk gets very disorganised and eventually the computer has to go around the world for sport just to open a simple file. The answer is to every now and then to reorganise the hard disk so the files are in a logical sequence again. The process of reorganising the hard disk is called Defragmenting. Here are some links to show you How to Defrag Windows XP and How to Defrag Windows Vista.
4. Upgrade your Memory/RAM. By far the most effective way of speeding up your computer is to increase the amount of memory or RAM. Memory is thousands of times quicker than the hard disk and if you have a lot of memory more files can be stored there which means the computer runs much quicker. Memory is relatively cheap these days but you will have to consult your local retailer unless you have somebody you can call on for computer expertise.