Turn off Visual Effects:
If you do not care for appearance and want only good performance, then this tweak is here for you. Visual Effects are those like the new start button on your task bar. Fading in and out while minimizing and maximizing windows is an example.
In order to turn off visual effects follow this simple step.
Right Click on My Computer and Click on Properties. Click on Advanced Tab at the top. Under Performance, click on Settings button. Now in the Performance Options Window, select Adjust for Best Performance and click on Apply. You can make your custom choices as well.



Remove Unwanted Fonts:
While your system loads initially, it takes a small amount of time to load the fonts and other display settings, such as wallpaper as mentioned above. But this time will increase when you have loads of fonts, which you rarely use. If you are a graphic designer, ignore this tip, as you will work out with many fonts. But for all, it is necessary to remove unwanted fonts to boost up your performance.
So in order to remove fonts, follow this simple step.
Go to Control Panel. Double click on the Fonts Folder. Now a list of all installed fonts in your computer is shown. Hence you can choose to delete some fonts which you don’t use. Just right click on a font and click on Delete. Hence the font will be deleted.
Note: Take a backup of these Fonts, in case you want to use any of the fonts that you removed. Just keep it any other folder.

Disable Services:
Services, the word speaks about itself. But you may sometimes do not want to use a particular service when there is no necessity of doing so. But Identifying the service or services that are unnecessary will mostly be a trial and error process. To find out the list of services that are running on your system, click Start > Run, type in “services.msc” and click OK. This launches the Services Manager. Look through the list and identify any services which might look unnecessary. Stop the services one at a time. Make doubly sure you’ve stopped the right service. Note: Ensure that you don’t stop any Windows systems services and other essential services. Stopping critical and essential services will cause more problems. Also, you should be aware that if you stop a service related to any software you have installed, that particular software may not function correctly or not function at all. Hence see the description about the service before disabling it.



Optimize Registry:
Why are registry repair and optimization needed?
The registry is one of the most important components of your PC. It stores configuration settings that the Windows operating system needs to perform all of its operations.
Due to the critical role it plays in how Windows operates, errors in the registry have a significantly detrimental effect on performance. When the registry becomes corrupted or cluttered, you can experience slow boot times, sluggish responses from programs, unusual error messages, and frequent lock-ups or crashes.
How does the registry become corrupted or cluttered?
Every time you install software, install hardware, or change Control Panel settings (such as the appearance of your desktop), more data is added to the registry.
Every device (printer, camera, USB drive, etc) you've ever plugged in leaves data stored in the registry. Many of these settings quickly become obsolete, but Windows is still trying to decipher the commands every time you start your PC or open a program.
When programs are incompletely installed or uninstalled, invalid and obsolete entries are left behind, leading to linkage and compatibility problems. Even for programs that are thoroughly uninstalled, the old registry keys are deleted but the registry does not get smaller; rather, the old entries leave gaps and the registry becomes larger, fragmented, and inefficient. Dangerous software and intrusive adware, installed without your knowledge, often hide themselves inside the registry.
Without proper maintenance of the registry, a computer will only get slower and errors will eventually begin to surface. To maximize your PC's performance keep the registry clean, organized, and at its minimum size.
Clean and repair the registry. Remove invalid and obsolete data references from the registry. Defragment and compact the registry. Reorganize the registry and remove excess bloat, to free up RAM and allow Windows to access and read registry data faster.
Back up the registry. Back up the registry, allowing you to restore the registry and its vital settings in case of damage.
Choose a Registry Cleaner Software like Registry Mechanic from PC Tools to perform these operations.

Buy more RAM:
After performing all the above steps and if you are not able to get your system to load and perform fast, then its time to buy some more RAM. Increasing the amount of RAM vastly improves the performance. So give out some bucks to buy it. Check out your hardware compatibility before buying.