My computor has been acting really slow lately what could it be?

Question

I have cleared the history and deleted the files what else can I do.

Answer 1

If you install a lot of programs, try the following to get rid of "startup items" that install themselves in your startup menu.

Go to Start
Click on RUN
A little box will pop up - in it, type: msconfig
Click on the startup tab at the top

Then unclick everything except your antivirus, spyware and system tools.

Click Apply
Click OK
And it will promt you to restart.

You'll have all sorts of crap in there, such as Adobe updater and garbage that you can get rid of without fear of leaving your system vulnerable - and you'll get your speed back.

Good luck!

Spybot and those programs are good - but only if you have a virus. I suggest you run spybot, and then try what I posted above. Spybot will take system memory to run, too, causing your system to run even slower.

Answer 2

Check for spyware. These are both free.

Spybot - Search & Destroy detects and removes spyware, a relatively new kind of threat not yet covered by common anti-virus applications. Spyware silently tracks your surfing behaviour to create a marketing profile for you that is transmitted without your knowledge to the compilers and sold to advertising companies. If you see new toolbars in your Internet Explorer that you haven't intentionally installed, if your browser crashes inexplicably, or if your home page has been "hijacked" (or changed without your knowledge), your computer is most probably infected with spyware. Even if you don't see the symptoms, your computer may be infected, because more and more spyware is emerging. Spybot-S&D is free, so there's no harm giving it a try to see if something has invaded your computer.
http://www.safer-networking.org/

http://superantispyware.com/
SUPERAntiSpyware is the most thorough scanner on the market. Our Multi-Dimensional Scanning and Process Interrogation Technology will detect spyware that other products miss! SUPERAntiSpyware will remove ALL the Spyware, NOT just the easy ones!
Easily remove over 100,000 pests such as SmitFraud, Vundo, WinFixer, SpyAxe, SpyFalcon, WinAntiVirus, AntiVermins and thousands more!
Make sure after you download any of these, that you update them.

*Be sure to come back to Yahoo Q&A and vote for one of the answers as best answer!

Answer 3

Spyware is the most likely. Those are programs that are sneaked onto your computer when you visit certain sites or when you download free programs that include the spyware. The spyware runs on the computer and contacts the home site to get it to send you advertising popups when you do anything related to what the sponsor is selling or to send your personal browsing info to advertisers.

You can get a free Microsoft "Spyware Search and Destroy" program from the Microsoft download site. Install it and run it. It will locate all the spyware and let you delete it. Your speed will return to normal.

Answer 4

For starters go download (and run) Spyboy Search and Destroy and AdAware SE. Then get CCleaner and RegCleaner http://www.worldstart.com/weekly-download/archives/reg-cleaner4.3.htm. Finally go Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Disk Defragmenter. Also if you don't already have them get a firewall and antivirus. Of the free ones I recommend AVG Free (antivirus) and ZoneAlarm Free (firewall.) Everything except RegCleaner can be found at www.filehippo.com. All of the software mentioned above is free and junk software free. Oh and if you don't already pick up Firefox while you are there. It is way better than Internet Explorer.

Answer 5

Download spybot from spybot.com and update your anti-virus. turn the computer off and when you hit the power button start hitting the f8 key about once every second. this will display a list of options. select safe mode using the arrow keys and hit enter. sign into one of the accounts that has administrator rights and then run the scans, good luck

Answer 6

Any crapware, such as:
- Virus
- Spyware
- Trojan
- Adware
- Many processes (scanning, etc.)
- Slow CPU clock speed (maybe using only 1 core of a multi-core processor)

Answer 7

defrag the hard drive. run ad aware and virus scans.

Answer 8

its a virus

Answer 9

you might have to defragment it.