There are no games on my PC nor any shareware. I run Norton AntiVirus 2003 and Spyhunter as scheduled tasks every week, and they've never found any problems other than low- and medium-risk cookies.

Any suggestions as to the problem?

David Hatcher, Denver

A. Like computer columnists, computers tend to bog down and get cranky the older they get. It is too bad columnists don't have a system restore disc, Mr. H., because that's what your venerable Dell needs after 4 1/2 years of online work and other labors.

Dell included these CDs with its Pentium III models to allow customers who get in trouble to restore the software to its original condition. This requires one to back up all data, because the hard drive will be reformatted.

In the best of all worlds, that's what you should do.

But I also know that many folks hate to even think of giving their computer a brain transplant, so let me suggest some less draconian but probably helpful fixes.

Start by eradicating all of the temporary Internet applications you have collected over those 54 months of online computer travel. These "applets" handle thousands of tasks, like making Web page graphics blink and flash and sizzle, tracking your various preferences and much more. The longer you use a computer, the more these memory maggots build up. The buttons to erase all this stuff are near the cookies that you mention in your note.

So click on Tools in the Internet Explorer browser and then Internet Options. In the menu this summons, select the General tab and then click on the buttons there for Delete Files and for Delete Cookies.

After all those years you can expect a lot of hard-drive churning and cursor spinning as this clogging stuff is given a dose of digital Drano.

Next, you need to get rid of all of the stuff that various programs have insinuated onto your startup routines--things like icons for Real Jukebox, Apple's QuickTime movie player and a whole lot of other stuff. Click on Start, then Run and type in msconfig to launch the Microsoft system configuration control panel.

There you will find a tab called Startup. Open it and look at all of the boxes with check marks in the display. Remove the checks from anything that sounds suspicious.

When you reboot after doing these three things, you will find a marked speedup.

The final step is to run the Windows hard drive defragmentation tool. You can find it by clicking on Start and then Programs and then Accessories and System Tools. But you should first put your computer into what is called Safe Mode so that none of the regular background processes your computer uses will interfere as the defragment tool attempts to write things to the hard drive.

The Safe Mode is engaged using different keys on different Windows 98 machines and by the F8 key with Windows XP. So check your manual or try the likely suspects.

First, hold down the Control key as the computer boots. If that doesn't bring up Safe Mode, try the Enter key or the F3 key. Then do the defrag, and when you reboot, things will be much better.

Q. How do we restore settings on our HP laptop (Windows XP) to gain access to secure Web sites? It used to be able to do so until recently.

We use Comcast Internet access and we have one other computer (a desktop) that we are able to use to access secure Web sites, but not the laptop. What can we do, and what should we check for?

Susan Chung@yahoo.com

A. Microsoft uses complex software routines called secure socket layers to shield data from snoopers when it is sent back and forth to sensitive sites like online stores and banks, as well as places that collect personal information. Whatever happened to disable this feature on your machine is just a couple of clicks away from a fix, Ms. C.

Click on Tools in the Microsoft Internet Explorer Web browser and scroll down to Internet Options. In that display, look for a tab called Advanced. This allows one to switch on and off a great number of features in the browser, including the SSL routines that are disconnected on your machine.

These settings are among many listed under the heading of Security at the end of the Advanced features control list. Put a check in SSL 2.0 and SSL 3.0.

Q. It used to be that when I started my computer with XP, the icon that the mouse was pointing to was highlighted, and by pressing Enter I could activate that icon. Or by using the arrow keys, I could move to a different icon, press Enter and activate that icon.

Then suddenly that wonderful facility was gone. I have not found a way to get it back. Now I have to use the mouse. The other method was, for me, with arthritic hands and fingers, much preferred.

Pascal Grimaud,

Arroyo Grande, Calif.

A. Welcome to the debate over whether we mouse slingers should do things the hair-trigger or the careful way, Mr. G.

The option for setting one's mouse to automatically highlight an item when the cursor passes over it was tucked away in the Windows folder options rather than in the mouse Control Panel, which is where every other setting for the mouse is available.

So click the My Computer icon open and select Tools, then Folder Options. There, under the General tab, look for the Single Click choice. Put a check alongside it, and items will be selected when the mouse moves over them rather than after a user clicks the left button once.

The Single Click setting makes each icon open on the first click instead of the second. These settings also allow the use of the Enter key to open selected icons that you also desire.