  Before you drop the dough on a whole new system, here's a list
of upgrades for squeezing a few more months, years even, out of
ol' faithful, during these trying economic times.  If your
Windows PC is seriously Dark Ages material, you might want to
try converting it into something altogether different, like an
NAS or media center. But stick around here if you're riding that
thin line between acceptable day-to-day use and the scrap heap
and try these quick and cheap upgrades first.  1. Reinstall Your
OS Over the years, operating systems inevitably pick up random
pieces of clutter that start hogging your limited resources and
bring your system to its knees. Forget spyware and malware
cleaners-they're often just as guilty of mucking up your
machine.  No, the best way to start fresh is of course to
reinstall Windows. It's a pain, but thankfully there are a
number of tools that will make the process easier.  nLite and
vLite for XP and Vista respectively are great tools for not only
automating a large chunk of the