Firstly, when ever I try to post a smilie on here like this the Internet Explorer Script Error box comes up and I have to press yes before the smilie comes on the post. Are there some settings on my computer I need to alter to stop this?

2ndly, my computer has been running really slow and causing problems of late and when I looked at all the programmes I have on it I don't recall loading half of them, but don't know what they are so afraid to delete incase I mess up good ones on here.
I have been told that sometimes things download on to your computer without you even being aware of it and there are clean up discs or somert that tell you which are good or bad programmes so you can delete them from your computer. Does anyone have any ideas on this and anywhere that is free as so far having briefly looked, they all seem to involve handing over money....which I don't mind if they are good by the way.

Thanks

That should not happen. I've never heard of that before!!

It's bad news when you download something, and you get a whole lot of other rubbish that you didn't want or need. Those "Free screensavers" are famous for that.

It sounds like you've also got a lot of spyware or something on there. Get to the microsoft site and see if you can get "Windows Defender" loaded on. I've found that very good.

As regards the rest....sorry can't help you, but we've one or two on here that seem to know a lot about this stuff, hang on and I'm sure one of them will come to your aid.

Many thanks for the advice you have given Harlequin. Definitely feels like something is going on even though I have the full McAfee security stuff and have done virus checks.

what a daft title for a thread, thinking they might be clever people on here.

I agree that it sounds like alot of spyware issuse are invoved here, windows defender is a great spyware detector and remover of this kind of crap i also suggest http://www.tune-up.com/ which is a great way to clean up the registry and your hard disc, it will also let you check what programs are active and the ones that are aload of crap....also i had the same anti-virus software and found that because of the real time scanning of this program it slowed down my computer dramatical....just a thought.

Have you ever cleaned up your temporary files and cookies? If you use the internet regularly, unless you clean up every so often you may end up with thousands of cookies and temporary files that will really slow things down! I always make a point of getting rid of all cookies and temp internet files at least one every 10 days or so. You can usually have access to Cookies folder via the "Documents and Settings" on your C drive, and where there should also be a "Local Settings" folder that would contain a "Temporary Internet Files" folder. It may well be that the latter exists without having to go through "Local Settings Folder" first.

You can delete all cookies (except the "index" file if one exists) and all the temp internet files listed with no worries!

Alternatively, your operating system should have a "disc clean" application which will do the same and get rid of all necessary files.

Good luck!

use these.....


http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Person...dl&tag=top5

next


Start Spyware Scan Now - look for that sign for this one then dload file


http://www.webroot.com/


next, and the most important


http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/