Help! My computer is as slow as the day is long.....
 

And I do mean s-l-o-w! I will admit to being a computer ignoramus, and don't know the best ways to go about getting my pc to run like it used to. I have Windows XP, and Roadrunner is my connection. I usually do all the basic stuff - clear cookies and history, defrag, delete e-mails......

I'm going to assume this is an adware/spyware issue. I need advice as to what is THE BEST method of getting this crud off of my computer. Is it something I need to purchase, or is it some type of free download........anything!

Any advice will be greatly appreciated, and you will be rewarded with good karma for helping a blockhead out. Now, I just hope I will be able to read this before my hairline recedes another inch!

Spybot S&D

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html

Webroot has a good product called spysweeper...Lavasoft Ad-Aware is another good one. I'd try downloading those and running them first.

Does it make a difference from which one I download, or are they all the same?

Nope, no difference.

Download Spybot, as well as Ad-Aware and run both. You may have to run them three or four times to make sure you got everything...

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

Gotcha. I've ran both once, and it helped a little, but it's still slow going. :mad:

Bowser, it sounds like the same problem i had about 3 months ago. I ran all those anti virus programs and spy bot twice a day, defraged the computer. And dumped some junk off my hard drive and it continued to go from bad to worse.
Finally i took it to a competent computer place and they had it running back to normal. Bascially i had a trojan horse i couldn't get rid of.
They also put on AVG anti virus software (free program), it cost be 80 bucks but to me it was well worth it.


Goodluck!

You just exactly described my situation. I've run Spybot and ad-aware three times each now, cleared everything, dumped old files/downloads, defragged at least six times, and it seems like it's starting to get even slower. May I ask where you had to take your 'puter to get it running again? Was it a hometown place, or one of the evil empires?

Update -

I went to Time Warner and upgraded my modem/router thing, and it seems to have taken care of all the speed and performance issues. I will continue to run the Spybot and Ad-aware, so thanks to Jazz and Saul for pointing me in that direction.

Just for future reference your browsing speed is not the same as your computer speed. That's like saying your car is slow because you're driving in rush hour traffic. When you are having a slow internet connection and you use cable it's a good idea to check all the cable connection from your cable modem to the outside of your house. A lose cable will play havoc with your connection.