Lifehacker puts up some oddball tips every so often, but most of these are pretty easy to enact and may help you speed up your computer.

Top 10 Free Upgrades to Make Your PC Better

I've summarize the tips here:

10. Clean your hardware, inside and out
9. Calibrate your monitor(s)
8. Remap your unused keys
7. Improve your speaker setup
6. Make your workspace more ergonomic
5. Ditch unreliable wireless and go wired
4. Keep it running quietly
3. Overclock your processor and graphics card (expert users only)
2. Perform a little maintenance
1. Install better, free software (link to Superior alternatives to "crappy Windows software" and "crappy OS X software").

I know Bill D has a lot of links to good free programs, so he may have reviews or remarks or others to add, as may some of our other geeky types. Now that the holiday break is headed our way, maybe you want to take the time to get under the hood and spruce up the operation.

SRS