Help with notebook (beginner)

I have had my notebook for about 11 months now and I have found lately that it is not performing as well as it did when I first got it. I understand that some of this is just due to age but I feel it is not that old. I am not good with computers at all and am looking for some tips on what I can do to keep my computer clean. I download torrents once a week or so but was told that this is relatively safe. I do leave it running for periods of time (several days) but it is closed and not fully running. I really need your basic tips. Thank you.

 

What OS, do you defrag your hard drive?

 

do a system scan, you might have a heap of spyware and the like slowing you down.

and can a mod please move this out of the desktop section.

 

well, the best thing to do would be a clean reformat....but that may not be the best idea for a someone who isn't well-versed in computers.

here are some things that you can do:
go to your start menu > accessories > system tools

run disk clean up and disk defragmenter

uninstall software that you no longer use.

run spyware check

close up software that is running in the background that you don't need (e.g. spyware programs that may have been installed with some of the other stuff you installed)

if you have norton, you might want to consider a less resource hogging antivirus like avast or avg that are both free.

you might want to find a free registry cleaner like crap cleaner and clean up your registry. note, you should make a back up (it is an option in whatever software you use to do this) of your registry just in case it gets rid of something you need.