I am consistently asked by friends to reformat their computers due to them lagging up too much and them having trouble doing their day-to-day stuff. I then ask them to do three things, install Spybot search and destroy, install adaware personal, and ensure they have an anti-virus. And then they get all fussy and tell me how they don’t want to spend money on software and they don’t like pirated software and I have to explain to them that ALL THREE of these programs are available free. They are all incredibly easy to use, and regular use will keep your machine clean and safe.

I have talked about spybot before, and I highly recommend you use this tool. It is incredibly powerful and efficient. Make sure you download this and install it. Very easy to use, so just do it.

The next weapon in my arsenal against spyware is AdAware personal. Yet again available free from here.

Antivirus, one would think that something like antivirus is only worth getting the best, and so you MUST have to pay for it, but for the average, (non commercial), Joe, there is free antivirus solutions that is more than competent for what we need.

I personally have only ever used AVG on my personal computers, it is fast, does not lag up my system, does not mess up my gameplay and updates regularly enough for me to feel comfortable. You can get it from the avg site.

One that my relatives seem to use is Avast! home, personally I’ve never used it, but they’ve never complained, so I would love some feedback on this if people have used it, and make sure you grab it from the avast! site.

So there you go a basic security package to prevent viruses and spyware, the two things that slow down computers. If your computer is running slow, give it a try before you reformat, what’s a couple of minutes trying to do this quickly over a full reformat and reinstallation of your software.

Also just a disclaimer, I’m not saying that these options are the ULTIMATE BEST EVER NEVER GET A VIRUS/TROJAN/SPYWARE/POSSESSED CAT or anything like that, these are some easy to use tools, that can be used as part of an arsenal to combat these problems, except for maybe the possessed cat.