SPYWARE

This is currently really a plague. The design of windows and internet explorer makes it possible for browser extensions and other software to be installed very easily. Sometimes this comes with "free" software, sometimes it's a "drive by install" via a web page. Alas this feature (or flaw, depending on your point of view) is exploited by malware, software you really don't want on your system. If you are the type that always clicks Ok without reading anything, your computer may be infested with malware, and it may slow down your system to a crawl.


It may also show unwanted popups, start pages, search engines, redirect links to other sites, steal passwords, etc. etc.This is a very complex item, that would take to far to extensively discuss here. Be aware however that this is a problem much bigger than virusses. You may want to have a look at the following software to scan your system. These will clean up most of the pests, but possibly not all of them.


It might be worth looking at your system's BIOS settings. That's what you can do at booting, by pressing the Delete key before Windows or anything else is loading. This is not for the faint of heart, but it is definitely worth looking at. Mostly the factory settings will be quite conservative. A properly adjusted BIOS can easily get you twice the speed of a poor setting.


Make a copy of your current settings (Print Screen key) before you change anything. Most important are things like cache settings, memory wait states (zero if possible), PCI burst write, UDMA interface, etc. Award Modular BIOSes often have a 'maximum performance default' in the main menu, which works great. As these settings differ from system to system, and depend on version and make of the BIOS, I cannot make any specific recommendations. That would be beyond the scope of this website.