They say that cleanliness is next to Godliness, but holy hell, even if you've never set foot in a church, do yourself a huge favor and strut into your local electronics store and pick up a can of compressed air.

While you're at it, kick that smoking habit. Believe it or not, we've seen dirtier PCs than this, and they usually belong to smokers. If Marlboro makes your PC look this bad, can you imagine what cigarettes are doing to your lungs?

But we digress. Whether you choose to smoke or have the same irrational fear of vaccuum cleaners as our feline companions do, get in the habit of dusting out your PC every once in awhile. A series of short bursts on your PC's vents once a week will do wonders, just be extra careful to hold the can upright or you'll end up spraying liquid all over your system. And it's a good idea to pop open your case once a month and clean out the inside (shut down and unplug first).

Did you know that the chief feature of Windows 7 Ultimate is that it costs more than lesser versions? Ok, maybe not officially, but Windows 7 Ultimate's price has us scratching our heads. In fact, take it straight from the horse's mouth.

Great, you can switch Windows to Chinese on the fly! Of course, we all love that feature.

And what about BitLocker? Sounds like it can be a nice feature. That is, until you realize that the free software TrueCrypt does a much better job of encryption than BitLocker does. So what did you pay all that money for? Heck if we know.

Justin Bieber concert pictures. Detroit Lions tickets receipt. That ultra weird fetish video you downloaded. These are just some of the files you may have sitting on your hard drive but would rather no one know about. That's where TrueCrypt comes in.

TrueCrypt is free, open-source disk encryption software that allows you to easily create a virtual encrypted disk that mounts on your system like a real disk. But unlike those other partitions, the TrueCrypt container can only be accessed if you know the password, keeping those work documents or sordid love affair notes from prying eyes. There's even an option to encrypt an entire partition, whether it's your hard drive or a portable USB key you previously kept hidden in your rectum.

TrueCrypt works with a variety of OSes, including Windows 7, Vista, XP, Mac OS X, and Linux. You can download it here.

For most of us, the User Account Control (UAC) in Vista and Windows 7 is the equivalent of the annoying "Are we there yet?" during family vacations. Fortunately, the UAC can be disabled, while silencing the kids with a firm backhand isn't quite as easy (legally). And don't do that anyway, you could hurt your hand.

Are you sick of these popups? Want to disable the UAC? Here's what you do: READ MORE

This tip is especially for those who keep their computers on a carpet, have pets, and don't clean the house as often as they should (you know who you are). And actually, everyone should be checking out the interior of their computer every few months, even if you think you are Mr. Clean himself. Some people have wiped their computer clean of spyware and yet still have a slow running computer. Well, today we are going to take a look at the other way to clean your PC.

The floor of a carpeted room is the worst place to keep your tower. Cookie crumbs, ashes (from those who smoke), pet hair and dander, and dust all wind up on your carpet - and then inside your computer. You ask "How can all that get inside?" It's the laws of physics. You have at least one fan in the back of the tower pulling warm air out of the computer - which creates a suction effect and pulls cooler room air into the front, displacing the warm air. With this suction effect, anything light enough to be drawn in likely will find its way into the innards of the computer. Once the fans are blocked with debris and the temperature rises enough inside, the tower will slow the processor down to protect itself. Continued overheating of the system will cause component failure. The older the computer, the worse it seems to be.

"So what can I do to prevent this?"

There are a few things you can do: READ MORE