CCleaner and Advanced System Care in their default modes. Both are free. If you are not familiar with what you are doing please leave the included non-maintainence utilies alone.

DA

I use AVG
CCleaner
Malewarebyte Antimaleware
Ad-Aware (I rarely run it)
hijackthis
Everything is Freeware
cg

I have and use
Avira Antivir
CCleaner
Malwarebytes
Superantispyware...

but they are rarely needed because I dual-boot Ubuntu.

my windows boxes have
AVAST
Malwarebytes
Superantispyware
Spywareblaster
Zone alarm pro
ATF cleaner
and a few other goodies

Mine have:

AVAST
Superantispyware
Spywareblaster
Malwarebytes
Online Armor Firewall
CCleaner
Iobit Advanced System Care

Does anyone use just one software to do everything? Sure would be a whole lot easier than using several different ones to do it all.

But, then we probably get into the high cost factor.

Does Windows XP have any features for maintenance? If so where do I find them?

Having several different ones serves a purpose because what one program fails to catch, another one probably will. No one program is good enough to catch all the nasties that are out there. If you really want to put all your eggs in one basket and don't want Norton, you should look into an antivirus suite from Eset Nod 32. XP by itself has no maintenance features.

I use Avast, and spywareblaster just need a good maintenance software.

What is Iobit advanced system care?

ok what exactly are you meaning by maintenance?
It is highly recommended NOT to use any type of registry cleaner so you do not need that.
ATF cleaner and CCleaner are both very good products to do general clean up (not use the advanced or registry part)
If you tell us what you want done it would help with direction.

A layered security protection is the best protection, as azinoh stated one program that tries to do it all can fail and then you have no protection. Many infections today are created to stop the top names in security once they infect the pc so if the infection stops the one item you have you are in bad shape. Having multiple layers with different programs helps cover those bases. Now only one AV per pc is advised of course.

I personally would not have my windows pc online with out malwarebytes at the very least in addition to my AVAST and spywareblaster.

ATF-Cleaner
see if that will meet the maintenance needs

I see that opentip has your product for $10.39
System Mechanic 7 Professional - 3 User Edition
However many of the reviews of the newer versions of system mechanic are not good.
System Mechanic 7 Professional
the reader reviews have quite a few negatives, the most alarming are the ones stating it does not give you a choice when it wants to delete things from your pc, not good at all. Plus it sounds like it is a bear to fully remove from a system. Many complaints of having to format pc.
Consumer Alert: System Mechanic Professional 7
I always like to utilize google and find user reviews to see what a product is really doing by hearing it from the users.

Don't forget this one WOT. Warns against risky Web-Sites

Here is a link that might be useful: .mywot.com

I've been using CCleaner for Cleaner and Registry and it's
never done me any harm.
The Registry part has a backup that I always use.
cg

Using any registry cleaner carries risks, if you don`t know what it is you`re fixing. Make sure you make a backup of your registry, before running the reg cleaner.

A broken registry,is a broken windows...

The maintenance that I would like to do are to scan and repair invalid shortcuts
file associations
registry
tracking cookies
spyware threats
defrag
optimazation.

This is all I can remember that was some of the maintenance that was done.

Thanks you guys for all your input.

Just as a question, what do you mean by optimization? Or is this something you saw in an product offering?

I ask as I regularly recommend to users not to fall into the "optimization" trap. I have seen too many times where outside applications offer to emend internal Windows and IE settings for better performance and all they do is cause concern(s).

DA

Well now, I am less than a novice with my computer. I am not really sure what it does. When I had Norton system works and ad-aware one of the things you clicked on to do was called optimization.

Now you know what I do which most likely does not answer your question.

What I am looking for is a maintenance software that does minor fixes. to help computer work at its best potential.
For example I understand when you delete files or software or move files around it creates a space. Therefor you want to get rid of that space.

Start : Programs : Accessories : System Tools : Disk Defragmenter

well you can do a defrag on your pc with out any other tools that is built into each version of windows, for your xp go to My computer> your c drive icon right click on it choose properties on that tab you can choose to do disc cleanup, if you click on the tools tab of that box you have options there to do various things one is defragmentation which is what you are talking about when you mention the spaces. Here is a good tutorial\
How to Defragment your Hard Drive (Windows XP)

RC's referral is fine as I used the on-board Defrag utility on my home and work systems for years. However, in recent months I have been using Defraggler. It offers a full and quick defrag process. It also seems to be much faster than the on-board utility. No muss. No fuss.

Writing in plain-speak, defragging does not reclaim space per se. In essence what it does is compact the area occupied by the existing H/D files.

DA

Here is a link that might be useful: Defraggler