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Who says there's no such thing as a free lunch? Windows is full of settings and utilities that, if properly applied, can boost your system's performance without costing you a dime. And the Internet is chock-full of free and inexpensive utilities that can help you squeeze out a little more juice from your system.

Of course, we're not talking about a full-fledged banquet. A budget Celeron-based system with its graphics integrated on the motherboard rather than handled by a separate card will never be able to comfortably run the latest digital death-match games or demanding graphics applications, for example. But if you carefully optimize all the components in your PC, you'll probably see a noticeable improvement in its performance. We're heading under Windows' hood to tweak your hard drive, memory settings, CD-R and CD-RW options, monitor, and network connections.

You'll also get a wide-ranging crash course in Drivers 101, and you'll learn about some great freeware, shareware, and Web-based tools to help make your PC purr.

• See more like this:
• PC tune-up,
• tune-up tips,
• memory enhancement,
• hard disk maintenance,
• drivers,
• cd-rw running,
• graphics,
• monitoring and diagnostic utilities,
• modem and network settings