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Slowdown Busters

Sluggish PC performance can test the most even-tempered person's patience. These utilities help provide a boost.

Clogged Windows

Over time, Windows can become so stuffed with spurious, forgotten, and corrupted Registry entries that it's amazing the operating system works at all; determining what exactly is slowing the works can be supremely difficult. RegSeeker gets things flowing again by cleaning out Windows' rusty pipes. Like other Registry cleaners on the market, RegSeeker can identify and then change or remove invalid or unused entries. Of course, every Registry tweak comes with an element of risk, so use the program's Registry backup feature before making any changes. Free

Painfully Slow Acrobat Loads

Adobe Reader 6 could be one of the slowest-loading applications around--and that's really saying something. The fault lies with all of the sundry plug-ins that Adobe Reader insists on loading every time it launches--plug-ins that most people never use. Put some snap back into Adobe Reader's step with Adobe Reader Speed-Up, which prevents those resource-hogging plug-ins from loading. You can even customize the utility to load only select modules. Without further ado, Adobe Reader launches in an instant. This must-have utility works with Reader versions 3.0 to 6.01. Free

Windows Bulge

We all know the frustration of Windows bloat. The operating system is loaded with programs, services, modules, and applets that most of us don't need and probably won't ever employ. An incredibly handy utility, XPLite lets you strip out unwanted Windows XP features and unnecessary modules. The result is a lean and mean operating system that loads more quickly, responds faster, and occupies significantly less space on your hard drive. You'll also find versions that are compatible with Windows 98 and Windows 2000, which could extend the life of aging PCs. $40

Dawdling Video Downloads

Why does capturing video from MiniDV camcorders have to be so frustrating? Many applications that handle this task are complicated, confusing, and unstable; some, like Windows Moviemaker, force you to use their own proprietary format. Thank goodness for Scenalyzer Live. If not for it, you might be staring at countless hours of unedited footage. This snappy little applet does one important thing remarkably well: It grabs DV-format video off FireWire-equipped digital camcorders and captures it to hard disk. On top of that, the program also provides automatic scene splitting--by detecting breaks in the original recording--to help you find and work with specific portions of footage. No more wrestling with wretched, crashing bloatware. Now you can simply launch, capture, and--at your leisure--edit. $39

My Favorite Fixes: Easy Uploads and No Spam

Photograph: Bruce Zake

The Annoyance: I didn't know what busy was until I left my consulting job at Accenture to launch a fan Web site and a monthly magazine about the Cleveland Browns football team. I found myself constantly jumping in and out of FTP programs to upload articles and layouts to remote servers. I spent precious time battling spam, too. Despite the improved filtering in Outlook 2003, the flood of garbage threatened to overwhelm my inbox.

The Fix: I installed WebDrive, a nifty FTP program that lets me place remote drives and folders directly within Windows Explorer. No more fussing with a clumsy FTP interface or with tools like Microsoft FrontPage--I just drag, drop, and transfer. To deal with spam, I rely on SpamNet. It flags and deletes unsolicited e-mail messages for me, using an automated feedback mechanism to identify spam broadcasts as they emerge on the Internet. I couldn't work without it.