Hello and welcome to AO.

I was referred here by a friend who got his computer running faster after doing the same things I am trying. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
It might help if you give us an idea of what you are trying and why. Also what you have already done

As your objective seems to be to get your machine to run faster I would like to know what hardware you have, and where you think that you are experiencing problems.

To start with I would recommend that you submit your HJT! log here:

http://hjt.networktechs.com/

and here:

http://www.hijackthis.de/

Look at what they have to say, then check it out for yourself unless it is a definite baddie or something that no longer works because the file is missing.

Next thing I would look at are:

1. Start up programs.
2. Background processes.
3. Services that start automatically.

Make sure that you only have things running when you want/need them.For example you can set some services to start manually so that they only run when called.