SlowPC.co.uk - Slow Computer / Spyware / Malware / Anti-Virus / Firewall / Slow PC

Help! My PC is slow!
It is a common story. Whenyour PC was new, it ran like a champ. Programs loaded fast, you couldget your work done efficiently, browse the web, and play a few gameswith little concern about your PC's performance. Butlately you're wondering why your PC is so slow and how these intrusivepopup ads had gotten into your system.

Unless you know how to avoid it and/or combat it, you probably haveSpyware / Adware / HiJacks on your computer. Even if you do knowabout them and scan for them, if you haven't scanned in a while, youprobably have something new on your PC. Just about every PChas something that fits this category running on the PC, eating upresources, or worse yet, spying on your activity, collecting data fromyou.

So what can you do to combatthis?
Below is a list of freedownloadable programs specifically designed to find and remove Spyware/ Adware / Malware / HiJacks and other such nasties from yourcomputer, If you find yourself having similar problems to the abovedescribed work your way through the list (Start with Ad-Aware and workyour way down) making sure you check for updates to the program beforeevery scan.

Also on this page...
Below the list of Anti Spyware / Adware / Malware/ HiJack programs you will also find a list of Free Anti-VirusSoftware and a list of Free Personal Firewall Programs, If you do nothave any anti-virus software and a Firewall installed both of these arehighly recommended.

SpywareRemoval Tools
NameAnd Link	Descriptionand Notes	Help & User Guides
Ad-Aware	Ad-Awarescans your memory, registry, hard, removable and opticaldrives for known datamining, aggressive advertising, and trackingcomponents. Upon finding these components it will prompt you to removethem, make sure that all the boxes are ticked prior to removing. Alsomake sure that you update the ref file regularly.	Step-by-step guide
WindowsDefender	Microsoft'sprogram includes "real-time" protection that makes it far superior tothe others.	Step-by-step guide
a-squared	a-squaredis a full tool to clean your computer from Malware. Not onlySpywares, as detected by classic Anti-Spyware programs, but alsoespecially Trojans, Backdoors, Worms, Dialers, Keyloggers and a lot ofother destructive pests, which makes it dangerous to surf the web.	Guide
Spybot	Similarto Ad-Aware in that it searches your harddisk for so-calledspybots or adbots. Again make sure that the program is updatedregularly.	Step-by-step guide
CWShredder	Thistool gets rid of the CWS trojan that hijacks Internet Explorerstart and search settings to one of several different web sites. Mostof these web sites appear to have an affiliate relationship withcoolwebsearch.com in which coolwebsearch pays them for every visitorthey refer.	Step-by-step guide
Qoofix	Qoofixremoves the Qoologic malware from your system.	Guide
HijackThis	HijackThisscans the locations in your computer system that may bemodified by browser hijackers and fixes any problems found. Goodtutorial on how to use it hereand go to thissite which analyzes the log files.	Tutorial
StartupList	Asimple tool that lists all and every auto starting program on yoursystem. You might be surprised what it finds, this is way better thanMsconfig. Commonly used to troubleshoot malfunctioning systems,trojan/viral infections, new spyware/malware breed and the likes.
IttyBitty Process Manager	Veryuseful for cleaning up systems infected with trojans or viruses thatkill antivirus and antispyware programs.
BugOff	Thislittle app disables a few exploits that are commonly used bybrowser hijackers (including CWS), thus protecting you from infection.This does not remove an existing infection! Applicable to everyone thatuses Internet Explorer.
ADSSpy	Asmall tool to list, view or delete Alternate Data Streams (ADS) onWindows 2000/XP with NTFS file systems. ADS is a way of storingmeta-information for files without actually storing the information inthe file it belongs to.
Kill2Me	Aremoval tool specifically for the Look2Me parasite
BHO Demon	BHODemonprotects you from unknown Browser Helper Objects (BHOs), by letting youenable/disable them individually.
ToolbarCop	Thisutility can be used as a Quick-Solution to remove Toolbar, Toolbaricons, and Browser Help Objects.
HTAstop	HTAStopis a Freeware utility for disabling MS Hypertext Application (HTA),which is used by some trojans and browser hijackers.
Browser Hijack Blaster	BrowserHijack Blaster protects your system from browser hijackers and spywarethat alters your Internet Explorer settings.
SpywareGuard	SpywareGuardprovides a real-time protection solution against spyware.
WinPatrol	WinPatroluses a heuristic approach to detecting attacks and violations of yourcomputing environment.
SpywareBlaster	SpywareBlasterdoesn't scan and clean for spyware - it prevents it from ever beinginstalled.
StartPage Guard	Thisproduct allows you to set your Internet Explorer start page andthen guards that setting against unauthorised changes. If somethingalters your homepage setting without your permission and doesn't letyou change it back, this product will change it back for you.
IE-SPYAD	IE-SPYADis a Registry file (IE-ADS.REG) that adds a long list of knownad/spy servers and domains to the "Restricted Zone" of InternetExplorer. Once IE-ADS.REG is "merged" into your Registry, most ad/spyservers will not be able to resort to the usual "tricks" (e.g.,cookies, scripts, popups, et al) that they use in order to track andmonitor your behavior while you surf the Net.
Bazooka	BazookaAdware and Spyware Scanner detects a multitude of spyware,adware, trojan, keylogger, foistware and trackware components; sourcesof irritation that antivirus software does not deal with.
Sophos Anti-Rootkit	SophosAnti-Rootkit, finds and removes any rootkit that is hidden on yourcomputer.
ProcessLibrary	ProcessLibrary.comis an invaluable resource for anyone who wants toknow the exact purpose of every single process. Enter your Process inthe dialog box below to find more information about it.

Found a broken link? Please report it in the comments box here, All broken links reported are fixed or removed within 24 hours.

MessengerService pop-ups (XP, 2000 and NT)

For Messenger Service pop-ups outside ofyour browser then visit this page which will show you howto stop the messenging service; it's for Windows NT, 2000 or XP only.

Important note:You should only have one Anti-Virus Program and one Firewall Installedat a time, installing more that one at the same time can cause moreproblems since they will often fight each other whilst trying toperform the same tasks.

Free Anti-Virus Software
NameAnd Link	Descriptionand Notes
AVG Anti-Virus	AVG Anti-Virus Free and AVG Anti-Spyware Free is for private, non-commercial, single home computer use only.
Avast Home Edition	Avast! Home Edition is a Free full-featured antivirus package designed exclusively for home users.
Avira AntiVir	AviraAntiVir PersonalEdition Classic reliably protects your private computeragainst dangerous viruses, worms, Trojans and costly dialers.
ClamWin	ClamWin is a Free Antivirus for Microsoft Windows 98/Me/2000/XP and 2003.

Free Firewall Software
NameAnd Link	Descriptionand Notes
Kerio Personal Firewall	SunbeltKerio Personal Firewall 4 can run in a free mode vs. a full (paid)mode. Install it now, and for the first 30 days it will run in 'full'mode. After that, it shuts down selected features, but will continue torun in 'free' mode".
ZoneAlarm	ZoneAlarmis free for individual and not-for-profit charitable entity use(excluding governmental entities and educational institutions).
Jetico Personal Firewall	Thesoftware offers detailed, configurable event logs, reports, plus theoption to view and edit the firewall configuration. The modulararchitecture is as open as possible to assist with easier evaluation ofthe security.
SoftPerfect Personal Firewall	TheSoftPerfect Personal Firewall is a free network firewall designed toprotect your PC against attacks from the Internet or via a local areanetwork.

Comments

Posted By: Tony

Whoaa!!!
Don't know how I got to this, but it surely ROCKS!
I ran accross your page, after searching for ENDLESS hours, and VOILA!!! It just worked like a charm. UNBELIEVABLE that we have to so deep and down to get such a miserable problem resolved. Thank's God this site is around.
Keep up the good work!!!

Posted By: SoundBoy

Thank you so much!
Your page is the best I've ever come across, this solved all my headaches, once again thank you!

Posted By: JulieH

Absolutely FANTASTIC...
I almost got crazy trying several other sites.
My last resort would have been to reinstall the whole stuff, but you have saved me the day!!!
Thank You.

Posted By: R@tty

Perfect, thank you!

Posted By: Bush

Lieber grumble!!! hoffe dir gehts gut da in der fremden weite... wenn man dich schon nicht persænlich besuchen kann...

Posted By: Gareth W

Thanks for this, great list can I also suggest Windows Advanced Care. I swear by this program: http://www.download.com/Advanced-WindowsCare/3000-2086-10407614.html

Posted By: ron

i have adware and malware virus
i require free virus removal tool

Posted By: Nieznajomy

Siema ziomki co tam? :D

Posted By: Grzesio

Siema, szukasz dobre liceum ja nie znam takiego

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