Also, get a good installer program. Over time, after cycling through many different programs on your system and since deleting them, the system can become clogged with traces of the old software. Manually deleting some programs is fine, but other dig themselves into the OS and if you delete them, there are still traces. All Windows programs create entries in the Windows registry and these entries are often still there after the program is long gone. This can lead to a long registry file and it bogs performance.
Many good programs exist that uninstall old software and are quite good at removing every trace.
Many programs come equipped with their own uninstalling program. Still other programs are designed to clean out Windows registry. Most of the tweaks on this page are relatively harmless and have the possibility of speeding up your system while decreasing hard drive activity. As always, though, it's a good idea to back up your system before trying any of the above tips. You can learn more about Windows 95 and NT optimization at the following URLs.