Girlfriends computer is running really slow, need some help.

[Happy Panther]

Will AVG clean off the stuff that is already on there?

Yep.

Spybot is also good and the one panthro lists is probably fine.

Adaware is helpful too

[Kettle]

i gave up on those anti-spyware programs. sometimes malicious programs are disguised as them. i just keep my norton up to date now. its like 70 a year, but its worth not having the headache.

that and the two system tools i mentioned are all i do, and my laptop runs great.

[Mvp2014]

AVG is a virus. Use Malwarebytes to remove spyware and Panda Cloud for virus protection.

[Future of the Funchise]

Step 1: Grab hammer

Step 2: Give the laptop a few technical taps

Step 3: Look at GF and say, 'See I fixed it baby.'

Step 4: Slam the laptop on the ground and scream, 'THERE ARE NO WOMEN ON THE INTERWEBS!!! NOW GET YOUR ASS BACK IN THE KITCHEN AND MAKE ME A SAMMICH!!!'

[The Saltman]

its a desktop FOF

[SorthNarolina]

I wouldn't call somebody just yet, you do not want to spend 50 dollars on a 100 dollar computer.

This is what I would recommend for a quick fix it will take just a few clicks. The longest wait will be downloading the programs and running them which on that machine you should just let them run over night.

Download CC cleaner, run it. It will delete all of your temp files and recycle bin. It should speed things up a little bit.

http://download.cnet.com/ccleaner/

Malwarebyte's anti-malware is my favorite for removing the malware. If she has any other virus or spyware programs you need to remove them. Many of them start running when windows is trying to boot. It slows things down a lot. It will be counter productive.

http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html

If you want you can do a quick scan, restart the computer, then do a full scan. It may be quicker as the quick scan will remove a lot of the stuff that is hogging the system resources. It can then do the full system scan a lot quicker.

I don't think the drive needs to be defragmented. I can't remember back to the XP days but most computers do that automatically on a pretty frequent basis.

Keep the computer unplugged from the internet as much as possible while you are working on it.

If you want you can restart the computer in safe mode to make things even quicker. Restart the computer and press F8, select advanced windows boot options and choose safe mode with networking. Download and run the programs I listed.

This should take care of your problem. I would look for a computer friendly person to help you before paying somebody. It's just not worth it if you are on a tight budget.

I also want to add if she's using an old XP desktop then it's just a matter of time before it gets infected again, so you will need to make sure to check it regularly.

A gentlemen I know wanted to pay me 120 dollars to do something very similar for his daughter's old XP desktop. I talked him down to 50 and that was still too much. Don't spend money on a jalopy.

[Future of the Funchise]

its a desktop FOF

that's what i get for not reading the whole thread

revised steps

Step 1: Grab hammer

Step 2: Give the monitor a few technical taps

Step 3: Look at GF and say, 'See I fixed it baby.'

Step 4: Slam the laptop on the ground and scream, 'THERE ARE NO WOMEN ON THE INTERWEBS!!! NOW GET YOUR ASS BACK IN THE KITCHEN AND MAKE ME A SAMMICH!!!'

[The NFL Shield At Midfield]

ComboFix gets rid of a bunch of nasty poo that standard antivirus tools miss. It's also a good idea to run a cache cleaner like CCleaner (http://www.piriform.com/CCLEANER) before you run it and then something like MalwareBytes (http://www.malwarebytes.org/) after you're done with ComboFix to get rid of any stragglers.

It works so well because it kills explorer.exe, cleans out your hosts file, looks for and kills a bunch of processes, then clears out all the nasties.

1. Boot into Safe Mode with networking (hammer F8 after the POST screen/before the Winders splash screen appears if you don't know how)

2. Download ComboFix here: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/combofix/how-to-use-combofix#use. Alternately Google ComboFix and choose the first BleepingComputer link.

3. Download and run it.

Also if she uses Firefox look into the NoScript (http://noscript.net/) add-on. It blocks a lot of the cross site scripting/browser hijack stuff that is the source of a lot of infections.

Edit: Listen to SorthNarolina

[thefuzz]

gotta say just because you make her, and you, sound ignorant about computers...

when is the last time a disc cleanup and disc defragment were done? those help a lot, and if she is using the machine heavily they should be done regularly.

Honestly, I can get around them pretty well, and I never seem to have issues with mine, but she always does.

I defraged hers about 6 months ago, and cleaned up everything on the processes page, and it seemed to work well for some time. However lately it's gotten bad again.

Thing is, I rarely go over to her house as I have a dog, and she prefers getting away from her roomie, so I am never there to fix her PC.

[Kettle]

you should teach her to do the cleanup and defrag then. a heavily used machine should be cleaned up weekly and defragged monthly.

[Panthers128]

The best tools I've seen for cleaning computers are the boot disks with antivirus software.

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/

That software allows you to create a boot flash drive which is worth having for the future but I doubt your gf's old computer will boot from flash drive. Still, this page has links to all the boot antivirus software. You'll see it if you scroll down. You can burn it to a CD instead.

It's important to have your computer wired into an internet connection. That way the boot disks will download the latest antivirus definitions which are essential.

You can also find the boot disk that Geek Squad of Best Buy uses on most torrent sites. I don't prefer that disk as much anymore as sometimes it has trouble getting updates and it takes forever to scan. It is quite thorough though.

If you don't want to use a boot disk to fix it, as others have mentioned, the best software will be Malwarebytes and Spybot.

[Future of the Funchise]

i never clean or defrag, and my computer has been running damn near every day since 2004. no problems.

[Panthers128]

Windows Vista and Windows 7 defrag automatically every month iirc.

[thefuzz]

Thanks guys.

I am going to get all up on that thing this afternoon.

Good news is, I will be getting a blow job while taking your advice.