My Computer is SO SLOW!

This is becoming an all too common complaint. A person buys a top-of-the-line computer, gets it home, begins using it and all of a sudden it runs like a car with a broken cylinder.

The reasons for this are many. But one big reason for it boils down to this: Companies pay a lot of money to advertisers who get people to contact their site. Although this might have started as an honest business venture for industrious people, it has progressed to a horrendously corrupt system.

These sites get you to sign up because they feel they can get you to spend a lot of money. Many sites feel that you are confronted with their wonderful services, you can't help but spend money.

Another reason is that people want to know what you are doing, what you're buying, what your credit card information is, and so forth. And not for very ethical reasons.

All of these problems boil down to one thing: malware. Malware (MALicious softWARE). Malware is: Any program designed to attack a computer, its processes or its security; software designed specifically to damage or disrupt the normal and/or desired operation of a computer.

Adware

One of the main problems that people run into is pop-ups. For example, you visit your favorite online game site and they attempt to install on your computer (or get you to install) a program which will "direct you" to sites that you "might need." In other words it pops windows open that show flashy pictures to entice you to click them. Or says "Click Here to Claim Your Prize!"  

1. Go to your control panel and uninstall every obvious program that runs these. Examples include: Bargain Buddy, Gator, anything that includes "Advertise" in the name. If you are not sure, don't uninstall. The next step will take care of it if it is a problem.

2. Go to your control panel and go to "Internet Options." When the screen pops up, click the delete cookies and delete files icons. Many of these programs run in "cookies." These cookies are little data programs that can be put on your computer without it asking you "Do you want to install?"

3. Change your home page to either a site that you trust (your own site if you have one) or click "Use Blank."

4. Go the http://www.lavasoft.com and download AdAware. (DO NOT TRY ADAWARE.COM AS THIS WILL ADD THESE UNWANTED PROGRAMS TO YOUR COMPUTER!)

5. Install AdAware and run it. Before having it check your system, click on the update icon on the program.

6. Run periodic updates and checks on your system using AdAware. I suggest three times a week. Or more.

7. This program as well as the ones mentioned below do not necessarily require that you pay. BUT. These companies spend a lot of time and money developing and updating and they will appreciate donations. Also, LavaSoft does have a program which can be bought which will continually run and prevent more problems.

Spyware and Trojans

In addition to these pop-up programs, additional programs are put into your computer and run in the background. These programs send information to other places about what sites you visit and what information you type. These programs are called "Spyware."

These spy programs do much damage. First and foremost, they send information into the world that is nobody's business. Second, they take a lot of computer resources that can be put to much better uses. After getting rid of the Adware, the next step is spyware. A great program to help with that is SpyBot Search and Destroy, which can also be downloaded for free.

8. Go to http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php and download SpyBot S&D and run it. It will do a marvelous job at getting rid of the more malicious spying programs.
9. Use the immunize function to prevent many of the most common malicious programs from being installed.
10. Ensure that you update and run this program every few days as well.

A Trojan is a program that appears desirable but actually contains something harmful. Trojan programs, for example, sit on your computer and open the back door. Many are handled by running the above. But not all. The most malicious ones are virus or worm programs. In order to handle these you must buy and run Anti-Virus software. MacAfee and Symantec both have programs. I prefer Symantec's Norton.

11. Obtain and run a good anti-virus program. Most of these programs have an option to run in the background and prevent further infection. Use it.

Additional Spyware

Some spyware is not handled by SpyBot. An additional program that should be run is SpywareBlaster. This program helps to prevent further infection to your system.

12. Go to http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html and download and run this program as well.

This "Wonderful Tool" (please note the sarcasm) is the product of a company that is not shy about paying people to develop ways to force you to visit their site. There are over 1200 different sites with various versions of programs that will add this "Wonderful Tool" without troubling you about deciding if you want it or not. And once it is on your system it doesn't like going away.

If your home page keeps popping up with a search engine even when the home page is supposed to be blank, you have been infected. One of the ways to help is to download and run a CoolWebSearch Shredder. A link to a good one is as follows: http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/cwshredder.zip.

A Good Resource

The company that developed SpywareBlaster, Java Cool Software, maintains a forum for their program which allows you to talk to more experienced people and get their help. The address is:

Additional Programs

I have spent some time getting suggestions on the above forum getting suggestions on what else you can do. Here are some additional Tips:

"Also to help further, if room, you could mention Javacools' SpywareGuard, which guards from Browser Hijackings, etc. and works in conjunction with SpywareBlaster." - Tassie Devils

"One thing I would add is in the Ad-aware section after updating configure Ad-aware to use 'in depth' scanning. I know it would be difficult to keep this short but perhaps a link to Lavasoft's configs. or a a few pointers to the custom scanning." - Robyn