How to minify and combine Javascript and CSS

Question

Can someone give me pointers on how I can minify and combine my CSS as the site I'm working on has performance issues. Also, are external JS and CSS libraries also minified and combined or left as is?

Answer 1

There are several convenient options for .NET, for example:

Chirpy

SquishIt

Cassette

And new in ASP.NET 4.5: Bundling in ASP.NET 4.5

Answer 2

I'd recommend reading Google's Page Speed and their Closure Compiler Service.