A fair amount of the people I talk to about backup say they forget to do it, or they can’t figure out–or never get around to setting up–the built-in backup options. If that sounds like you, check out IdleBackup, a utility for backing up your computer when it is sitting idle.

I still recommend making a daily backup of your important files. The downside to IdleBackup is that it only makes a one-to-one copy of your files. If you deleted something yesterday, it will soon disappear from your backup, as well. But if you are not backing up regularly, IdleBackup sounds like a good first step.

[via Lifehacker]

Once you have checked for spyware and run the PC Decrapifier, and your computer is still running slow, it is time to take a good look at the programs you have running all the time. Some you can see in your system tray. Others run invisibly in the background, hogging system resources and slowing down your machine.

To help, there are two great Windows utilities, Autoruns from Microsoft and the Startup Control Panel from Mike Lins. Both do much the same thing. They show your computer runs, whether at startup, logon, when you start Internet Explorer, etc. Just uncheck the services you don’t want running all the time. Like Quicktime, RealPlayer, and other stuff. When was the last time you actually used Bluetooth? Shut it down. What about infrared for file transfers? Shut it down.

Prune the services you don’t need, and you will regain a lot of speed.

Psst. Lack of bloat is another great reason to try Ubuntu. I kind of wish they would have tried a ThinkPad, but I can say from my own experience that it doesn’t come with much in the way of bloatware other than the junk that Windows comes with.

If you are drowning in bloatware, the PC Decrapifier is an excellent way to clean up your drive.