Why My PC runs pretty slow? background Service issues

[guitarman]

I have problem that my pc runs pretty slow from time to time. After hours of net surfing, i found that my PC may be infected by spyware. So what is spyware, actually I wondered. After sometime i have come to realise what spyware is and hence below I'd like to share my 2 cents on spyware.

Spyware is any "hidden" software that runs behind the scence and gather information relating to our online surfing behaviour. It is usually used for advertising purpose. For example, if a person usually visits websites related to sofware and hardware, spammer could use information gather by spyware to send some information about computer stuffs.
Spyware is usually bundled together with "freeware" such as Kazaa. Once installed, it will monitor your activity online and send those information to spammers. Spayware also is known as "adware".

I have learnt that http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ is one of a great tool to remove spyware. So you may try to download one and judge for yourself.

The second point I'd like to share is about the background startup service that run without our knowledge. Usually, this will cause PC to run slow during the startup time. Sometime we may have "too" many background services run on our pc at startup time. Some of the services we may not need at all. So we may want to stop it from running. In this case, we use "System Configuration Utility" to unselect some of the startup service.

>>To run the "System configuration Utility", do the following:
1- Click Start > Run (CTRL + R)
2- Type in the Run Command as "msconfig" (without the quote)
3- The System Configuration Utility window has shown. Click on Startup tab and Deselect those service you do not need.

Another option to remove some startup service is to use tweak xp pro 3. However, I have not tried it yet. I'm sure someone could shed some light on tweak xp please?

How about you? What is your suggestion to make PC run more faster?

[Singachea]

I also think that spyware would cause our computer performance down. I did try many software, but I could observe their effectiveness at the first scan only. I did try Yahoo antispy, spysweeper, spyguard, Microsoft antispy, spyDoctor and so on (including lavasoft). I admit that they can catch many spies at the first scan, and after that it seems useless. If I install too many antispy programs, it will even slow down my pc than the time I didn't install because there are too many services running simultaneously.

Personally, to prevent spyware is not much a problem. I think we just make our computer stable first. If you are not sure how good the software is, I would recommend you update windows security (free) rather than to perchase antispy software. Windows firewall and ZoneAlarm are also the good choices to protect your pc from spyware and network virus.

[guitarman]