I'll recommend you send the PC to a certified technician. That way you know it's in trusted hands. But if you wanna try your luck, you can run disk defragmenter like someone said earlier, use disk cleanup, check for malwares, and spywares. All these depends on the Operating System on your PC

However, nowadays that the job market is tight, he'll do more to keep his job.

your ex is an exception

Hi

I'd advise that you go for both if you can. Both can complement each other. I can tell you that from experience. You can get college credits
for some certifications, if the certification track covers your college curriculum. Having an A+, CCNA or Security + can get you a waiver in some schools. If the Certification is a high end cert. like the CCNP, CISSP or a PMP, then the bigger the waiver. Some Cert. organisations also give waivers for college degrees earned. So you can understand what i'm saying. In the long run, resources would have been saved.

I understand that one of the reasons why we all go for certs., and degrees is to earn a bigger pay check. Having both may tell an employer your different attributes.

In the case of the Cert., it shows maturity, enthusiasm about the field, quest for knowledge, focus and being able to do things and reason independently, settings goals and achieving them. You going for Certs. is not like being in college where you need to pass exams, summit term papers and are driven to do things. For certs., you have to drive yourself. If you are not enthusiastic about a field, or don't have the will-power to pursue it, then you don't do well. That is what i call the real-life exam. You have to exercise some maturity to pull through.

For college, it shows you can be taught, should the company want to train you to use your skills to operate in particular way to achieve some goals or train additional in a new field. Besides, you become a member of an educational institution through your certificate, and if it's a renowned school the better for you. In addition, you can get referrals from your lecturers who most times network with the corporate world.

All said, some companies give waivers for years of experience for a job if they see all your accomplishment. I would advise that you go for both if you can. The advantages far surpasses what you may expect.

It all depends on your PC Configuration. I personally like Vista for its sleekness. It'll really cool. Vista was made to be really encompassing and to accommodate more various PC requirements in the contemporary world, which includes Hi-tech gaming, DVDs, high user friendliness and improved security. It should be of interest to know that Microsoft has resolved most, if not all of Vista's user issues with its various patches. And most vendors have updated their drivers and applications to fit with the O.S.

So if you ask me, i'd go with Vista. All you need to do is upgrade some your hardware like your RAM and maybe your HD (which are not all that expensive nowadays) to allow for a more efficient System. Complains that i hear from people of Vista is like driving a V4 and expecting much acceleration in few seconds as a V6.