If you use Windows a lot, chances are pretty good that you've run into the need to visit Microsoft's support website.

It offers quite a bit of information and support, even on the serious and debilitating things that often seem to just crop up out of nowhere in Windows.

But sometimes all your system needs is to just get a nice old service — cleaning out the pipes, fixing up the upholstery, and giving it a nice wax-down — for it to run smoothly again.

Much like your car's service centre will have a few standard service options that you can choose from, Microsoft also has a few diagnostic tools that checks your computer for certain issues and fixes them automatically.

In the Microsoft Automated Troubleshooting Services, you can choose from tools that do common maintenance tasks, check and fix system speed issues, sort out power usage problems, diagnose and fix printer errors, find out why your hardware is not working and get it to cooperate, etc. etc.

At the moment these tools only work in Windows Vista, but then again that's probably where you'll need it the most anyway...

Go to the Microsoft Automated Troubleshooting Services website to find out more.

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