CapnGimp (or anyone!)

[Shannon]

My computer is weird again. It's slow, it crashes, and I'm getting pop-ups. I can't figure out what is going on. I do have PC-cillin Internet Security installed.

Any ideas?

[PN]

Shannon: Which version of Windows are you using? Did you do anything or make any changes to your computer recently that may have resulted in these problems? I would suggest that you do an on-line virus scan at housecalls (http://housecall.antivirus.com/housecall/start_corp.asp) or go to Panda (http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/activescan.htm) to do an on-line virus scan using Internet Explorer. I would also recommend that you use Mozilla Firefox (http://www.mozilla.org/) when surfing the Net and not IE. Also remember to turn off third party cookies.

Spyware can slow to your computer down to a crawl. Make sure you're running the free version of AdAware (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/), Spybot S&D (http://www.safer-networking.org/) (turn on the immunize feature), and Microsoft’s anti-Spyware program (http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/default.mspx) (turn on real-time protection).

In some cases you can speed up Windows by almost 20% by removing unnecessary start-up tasks. To see what programs are running you will want to go to "Start," "Run," type "msconfig," and click the startup tab. I would recommend going to System Info (http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php) to find out what each program is in your startup menu.

[CapnGimp]

I picked a bad day to start playing a new game, up way late, but I'll try to get up and give you a shout when I get going and see of we can straighten it out. It's almost 530 am and I got about 20 mins ta go b4 sleep time.

[Shannon]

Thanks Paul and John...

[Patonb]

Definately spyware, also download Hijack this (http://www.download.com/HijackThis/3000-8022_4-10227353.html) but becareful with it. It shows whats going on in your computer. Helpful in determing whats attacking your poor computer.