[Capt. Fantastic]

A less-mechanical approach might be to explore why the beast is running so hot in the first place. More than likely you have dozens of programs running "in the background" which you do not need.

This requires a smidgen of work on your part...

However, go to the Computer Management snap-in in the M$ Management Console. You get there by left clicking on the Windoze key, then right clicking on the My Computer icon therein. Find Manage and left click thereon.

Expand Services and Applications, then expand Services. This will list all of the programs running as, well, services.

Go through the list, identify those you do not need, then set the Status to Stop for those you suspect you could live without. If something breaks then turn the service back on. Once you have identified a list of superfluous services set the Startup Type to Manual.

Once things are cleaned up you will notice that the computer boots much faster. Also, runs cooler as long as last longer on the battery. You might even find that you are acquiring fewer cyberslugs since Services tend to have root access to the system.