oh man, me was a disaster, hahaha
i could never figure out how they made something so unstable based on windows2000, which is prob the best version of windows to date
and again, back up all the files and thing that you need, and run a full system recovery. it's not the same thing as the 'windows recovery' program, it should be a series of disks provided with your computer from the manufacturer, and it will automatically reformat your hard drive, and install the operating system and bundled software exactly the way it was when you originally took your computer out of the box
i do it once every couple months
with the amount of crap that collects in windows xp, it's almost essential to do it from time to time
another thing that i will never live without is ccleaner, it's a one-click system cleanup program that installs itself into the right-click dropdown menu when you right click the recycle bin. it also has a built in registry cleaner, which will detect undefined registry entries (from programs that are long gone, or for file extensions that aren't used, etc.) and cleans them
i use firefox, and bitorrent a TON, and have never had a virus to date with as much software as i've downloaded
and i've never had a serious problem with spyware... just read the fine print carefully any time you're going to install 'free' programs. most of the time the installer will TELL YOU that it's installing bundled adware, people are just too lazy to read, and deselect it, or uninstall it.
With full-time broadband connections being the norm anymore, you definitely need to be a bit more pro-active with computer maintainance, or else the **** gets deep FAST!!!
in your case, tho, it sounds like it's a bit past the point of saving your install, i would highly recommend running your system restore disks, and completely re-formatting/reinstalling everything on your hard drive
another tip, is get rid of all the 'extra' **** on your comp
at any one time, i have GAIM, firefox, thunderbird, media player classic, 3ivx, winrar, nero, and utorrent installed permanently... that's it. no 'quicktime' no 'realplayer' no 'itunes' no ******** whatsoever
nothing pops up when i start my computer, nothing has to load or open when i start it either, there's about 10 folders in my start menu programs, and the only thing in my taskbar is the volume control
keep it simple.. simple is fast... and the less **** you have on your computer, the easier it is to keep track of what IS and what ISNT supposed to be on your computer
if you have 8,000,000 things open and pop up on the taskbar, or run in the background processes every time you boot your computer, then you'd never know if you had spyware or adware, or malware, or a virus without a program telling you. cut the extras, keep it fast and simple, keep extra files cleaned, and always keep things backed up on disks. if there's 8,000,000 mp3's you've downloaded, back them up on dvd's as you download them. Each time you accumulate 4 gigs or so, put them on a dvd and get them off your hard drive, accumulating and deleting tiny files is what causes fragmentation of larger files, you want to keep them to a minimum.
And the last thing i can think to tell you, is more important than a virus or spyware program, to me, atleast, is a GOOD defragmenting program. Diskeeper pro can do a 3 or 4 pass defrag in the time it takes the POS windows defragmenter to do a half-ass one pass defrag. The one in windows is really primitive, it's basically the same source code they've been using since win95.
And lastly, screw virus and spyware full-time protection. If you really must have antivirus programs, shedule a scan once a week. There's no need to have it check every single cookie and file that you add download or move on your hard drive. And as far as spyware, a quick check in the add/remove programs folder will show you if anything new has popped up (if you know what was supposed to be there to begin with)
And the last trick i use to keep sneaky programs from popping up, or keeping half-assed uninstall programs at bay, is to completely reinstall windows, go through your hard drive, delete all the extra crap your manufacturer added on to your computer, and then make all of the folders that are supposed to be there invisible.
Now with a quick browsing of 'my computer' the only things visible will be new things that were added to your computer. This makes the task of keeping an eye on what's manifested itself on your computer a whole lot easier.
