The speed and consistency of Ignitia, Switched-On Online, and Switched-On Schoolhouse mainly depend on one thing: the computer. While some computers have sat idle in a computer lab, many have been active all summer as personal laptops or have been used to play games, frequent social networks, download music, etc. Along with all that activity comes unwanted clutter that slows down a computer's performance. By following these simple steps, you can start the year off with faster computers and hopefully fewer headaches due to unwanted programs and software.

Remove spyware and help protect against viruses.

Spyware and viruses are easy to get, even with the most careful of Internet browsing. Unfortunately, many of us are not careful, clicking on anything that pops up. Whether you know it or not, this may have actually installed spyware and/or infected your computer with viruses that tend to slow down computer performance. By using free tools such as Microsoft® Security Essentials, you can not only find and get rid of these unwanted programs, but you can also help protect against getting them in the future.

Free up hard drive space.

The Disk Cleanup tool found on every computer running Windows is an excellent tool to free up precious disk space. With every web page visited, temporary Internet files are being saved. While this provides faster access when returning to these pages, it also eats up hard drive space quickly. This tool safely guides you through emptying the recycle bin, and removing applications and Windows components you do not use, as well as other unnecessary programs and files. The Disk Cleanup tool can be found by going to My Computer, right clicking on your hard drive, and choosing Properties.

Make hard drive data more quickly retrievable.

Within this same Properties option is a tab called Tools. Here you will find the Defragmentation tool. Hard drives hold hundreds of gigabytes of data. As you open and close applications, browse the Internet, and delete files and programs, hard drive space is randomly utilized across your hard drive. Defragmentation takes all current data and lines it up evenly in a more condensed fashion, providing quicker read/write times, thus speeding up the time it takes to open and close programs and access data. This should be done on a regular basis, especially if you have recently loaded and/or removed large files or applications. It is best to start this process at the end of the day and let it run overnight since it may take hours to complete.

Regardless of your technical prowess, utilizing these simple tools can make you an IT expert for the day, so get under the hoods of your school computers and give them the technology tune-up they so desperately need.