Sluggish Windows XP system performance makes one think of the reason. I could only imagine of virus infection and those unused files littering on Windows system. If virus is not the reason then the most probable cause are some of the files which are temporarily created when using browsers for online activities are created and left uncleaned by the browser. Another, would be installing software which doesn’t have a good uninstall cleaning program. Those are some of the common things which could slow down the computer.

Having some way to clean the unused space, temporary files, registry files, and other related unused files would be good for performance improvement of a computer system running Windows. A free software for system optimization and privacy protection called CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) could be downloaded. I definitely needed this as I constantly try and install trial software which sometimes don’t uninstall cleanly from the system.

CCleaner System Optimizer and Privacy Protector Features:

• Internet Browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera) - temporary files, URL history, cookies, download history, auto complete form history, index.dat
• Windows System - recycle bin, recent documents, temporary files and Log files
• Registry Cleaner - advanced features to remove unused and old entries, including File Extensions, ActiveX Controls, ClassIDs, ProgIDs, Uninstallers, Shared DLLs, Fonts, Help Files, Application Paths, Icons, Invalid Shortcuts and more with backup feature
• Third-party applications - removes temp files and recent file lists (MRUs) from many apps including Media Player, Kazaa, Google Toolbar, Netscape, MS Office, Nero, Adobe Acrobat, WinRAR, WinZip and a lot more

I have downloaded the 2.86 Mb CCleaner file for about 6 minutes over my ADSL connection. It requires 4.3 Mb of diskspace for the program files. I checked it with TrendMicro OfficeScan virus scanner and found the software free of any spyware, adware or viruses. Anyway, as a good practice, please check it to be sure with your virus scanner too. Installation is a breeze. The software runs very fast in doing all the work. Maybe you could try it as the software made some significant boost in the  Windows XP performance.