There are many things that might cause your
PC to run slowly. It could be a fragmented disk; fragmented registry; a virus, Trojan,
or spy ware; high CPU and/or utilization due to too many programs running; high
disk I/O; or something else.
To check your CPU and memory utilization, run Task Manager. You can start Task
Manager by pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL
and then clicking on the Task Manager Button. In Task manager, click on the
Performance tab and check CPU Usage and PF Usage. PF Usage is an indicator of
memory usage. If one or both of these is high, click on the Processes tab, and
sort the columns by CPU or Memory to see what processes are consuming the
resource. If you are not sure what the process "Image name" is for, Google
the name and you should find what the process is for.
If your CPU and memory usage are reasonable, then you may have a different
issue. Even if you running anti-virus software, it may be beneficial to scan
your PC with another scanner to check for viruses. No anti-virus software is
100% perfect at catching everything. Here are a few good free online virus
scanners that you can run to check your PC:
http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/home.asp?langid=ie&venid=sym&plfid=
23&pkj=RRJEDTKJBTVISBYWWYP
http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm
http://www.eset.com/us/online-scanner
http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/solutions/activescan/
An excellent free utility for overall system maintenance is Advanced System
Care Free ( http://download.cnet.com/advanced-systemcare-free/3000-2086_4-10407614
.html ). I use this utility on a regular basis.
You should always run anti-virus software. There are several very good, free,
anti-virus products available. One good source to read editor and user reviews,
and safely download anti-virus software, is http://download.cnet.com -- search for free antivirus software.
In addition to the reviews, you can see how many people are downloading the
software, which is another good indicator of how popular it is.
I have used AVG Free ( http://download.cnet.com/avg-anti-virus-free/3000-2239_4-10320142.html
) , and Avast Free ( http://download.cnet.com/avast-free-antivirus/3000-2239_4-10019223.htm
l ). Both are very good, and completely free. At present I am using
Avast on all of my home computers.
I have heard good things about Avira AntiVir Free ( http://download.cnet.com/Avira-AntiVir-Personal-Free-Antivirus/3000-22
39_4-10322935.html ), and it has good ratings, but I have not
personally tried it.
In addition to Avast or one of the other free anti-virus software packages, I
also run Ad-Aware ( http://download.cnet.com/ad-aware-free-internet/3000-8022_4-10045910.h
tml ). Ad-Aware is a free anti-malware, anti-spyware package.
Good luck!
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