Is Adware to Blame for Your Computer Slowing Down?

It was just a few months ago that you went and bought a brand new and blazing fast PC. When you got it home and cracked the box it was running everything you threw at it with blazing fast speed. Now this simply isn't the case any more. Why has your new computer slowed down so much in just a short amount of time? Most commonly a home computer becomes slow because any number of 'bad' programs have taken up residence in the system. These programs are known by many names, from the more harmless adware, and spyware to potentially damaging viruses, worms, and Trojan horse programs. What ever they are called these programs compete for your PC's resources whether that be space on your hard drive or using your network connection.

These unwanted programs use the facilities provided by your home computer to run, the same ones that every other program uses. That means that software that you are actually trying to use cannot access them. Your program will sit and wait for a short while until it can gain access to what it wanted to use. When there are enough programs competing for certain limited resources the system can become slow and sluggish to respond. This happens because the system must wait, with everything else, for it's turn. Even if what has to wait is something as important as getting input from you, the user.

The programs can also be doing more then just slowing your computer down. There is genuine cause for concern, these programs could be combing over any personal information that you have kept stored on your home computer. They could just as easily be sitting there waiting to just maliciously destroy your information. Of course they aren't all designed by hunched nerds pretending to be super villains, they may 'only' be watching every website you visit and collecting data about your habits to sell to some marketing firm. Still it's not comforting to say the least.

How did they 'get in there' many people are left wondering. It is not like any reasonable person is going to go around downloading all these things to clog and maybe even harm their computer and steal their lives. Well don't feel bad, most of these bad guys basically broke in or snuck in with something else. If you are in the habit of downloading free games or software from unknown sites they may be tagging along with the installation data. In the case of the infamous Internet worms, like 'Sasser' and its twisted family, they can also break in by exploiting security flaws in the operating system or other software.

There is some good news however in this, problems of this nature are usually pretty easy to fix. There are many software packages available to clean a system of different types of bad programs. The two that most people should have are an adware/spyware scanner and remover, and a virus scanner. There are many companies and groups that make both of these types of software, and some may even have all-in-one solutions available. You can find them in your local computer software retailer or they can be purchased online if you are interested. These programs will generally also provide constant monitoring of the system of prevent you from becoming reinfected with the garbage that had built up. It is still usually a good idea to run them regularly and make sure that they stay up to date against the constantly changing menace.