Hi Brian,

re:
> Is there a recommended software to run on a Windows computer to "tune it up," or
> find out why it performs poorly?

I'm not aware of any single fool-proof one myself. Probably the standard thing would be to look for spyware/adware, try ADWCleaner, Spybot Search & Destroy, SUPERAntiSpyware, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, and HijackThis. Be careful where you get these from.

You can also run msconfig.exe and see what is starting up automatically, if you've got a whole ton of stuff on there uninstall or disable things you don't actually use.

Sometimes Anti-Virus software can hook into so many things it can greatly degrade system performance so you can try disabling that.

Also run Task Manager and click on the CPU column under the Processes tab and watch that for a minute and see if there is something that is chewing up a lot of CPU.

- Michael