I am going to give you all a few ideas I picked up from PC World and a few other sources.

Cleaning out the cache, temp files and registry from time to time is a very good idea.  Your computer will run a lot faster and more reliably.  PC World steered me to CC Cleaner,  which is an excellent all-purpose tool to achieve these goals.  It also can make defragging your drive effortless, which is also a good idea sometimes.  It is free, and virus free.  If you feel funny about downloading it, go to PC world, and read their review on this nice tool.

I recommend switching to FireFox from Windows Explorer.  It is a MUCH better web browser, and has a lot of add-ons that are quite cool.  Its easy to do, give it a try.  It too is free. 

I mentioned OpenOffice.org in a prior email under tightwad tips, but thought it was worth a mention in this forum as well.  It is an entirely free alternative to Windows Office.  It has been around for years, and is very easy to use.  You save a couple hundred by using this program, and are one step closer to being free from Microsoft.

Consider using an aggregator for all your websites, blogs, news sources, etc.  My favorite is Bloglines.com.  It is really easy to use.  Play around with it, and you will be glad you set this up.  Instead of having to go to a half dozen pages, you can just go to bloglines for most of your stuff.  Check it out.   

If all this seems intimidating, don't worry!  Just post your questions, and I will do my best to help.