How To Keep My Desktop Performance Up?

I have an Acer Aspire desktop pc with Windows 7. I believe that PCs can get bogged down with data, etc that can slow them down. I'm not having any specific problems, but prevention is better than cure. If I can get it running as good as it can be and doing things like loading web pages, etc as efficiently as possible, it will be a great help.

I have a vague idea about clearing things like caches, cookies and defragging, but don't know if these are useful or would be counter productive. So, what things should I be doing? Any suggestions gratefully received.

In addition to above suggestions, keeping the interior clean is a must.

Dust will cause the comp to run hot and will reduce life of components.

I used to use the canned air but got tired of paying for them

I recently purchased this:

Shop-Vac 2.5 Gallon 2 Peak HP Wet / Dry Vacuum - Walmart.com

and this:

Shop Vac Micro Cleaning Kit - Walmart.com

I used the blower port and the dust removed from the fans left them looking like new ( make sure to hold the fans steady while doing this).

My temps went from 42C down to 33C after hours of use and many programs running.

If you use it, make sure to ground yourself (touching metal of case) and don't touch the tool directly on components.

OK, thanks for your suggestions. Will work through them and get back if I have any problems. Cleaning the internals of my pc wouldn't have ever occurred to me. Too much like out of sight, out of mind. But I will definitely get the thing apart and get the vac in there.

Can I also ask ThrashZone what this means? What is an SSD?

I have an aspire also the best thing to speed it up is to install on an ssd,

An SSD is a drive that is non-mechanical.

Your boot times will go from 3 minutes to 30 secs.

Amazon.com: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-75E250B/AM): Computers & Accessories