This Brainstorm Tech Tip is sent as a service to all Brainstorm Internet customers to offer easy answers to common questions and to provide information that may be beneficial to help improve our customers' Internet experience. The following is an example of a question that we are frequently asked along with the helpful answer. Dear Brainstorm, I have a fairly new computer, not even two years old. When I bought it I was told I was getting the latest and greatest as far as processor speed, memory, hard drive, etc. Lately though it seems like my computer is just getting slower and slower. Is it just me or is it already time to buy a new one? ...Liz at Durango Mountain Dear Liz, This is going to be one of those bad news/good news answers. We'll give you the bad news first... Based on what you are describing it sounds like your PC has become infected with spyware. (We say PC because our friends using Apple computers are fortunate not to be bothered by spyware). Spyware is a term to describe tiny little programs that can download themselves to your PC through normal Internet activity such as visiting websites, downloading files and installing downloaded programs. Spyware is different than a computer virus. A virus is created with a malicious intent, to damage your system and/or data. The purpose of spyware programs is to report information back to their maker regarding what web sites you visit, what kind of things you buy online, and sometimes even what passwords you are using, along with creating those annoying popup windows in your Internet browser. While all of this might sound somewhat scary there really is no reason to be overly concerned, nearly all computers connecting to the Internet will have some degree of spyware present, but most of it does not pose any great risk. Over time, however, more and more of these little spyware programs can live in your system and eventually become so numerous that they begin to weigh heavily on your system resources, which is most likely the slowdown that you are beginning to notice. Now for the good news; it is actually quite easy to clean your system of spyware and even immunize it from becoming reinfected by the same spyware programs again. For cleaning up spyware we recommend that you download and install a spyware removal program. There are many available, but we have found two easy to use programs that we like to use together. The first one is called Spybot Search and Destroy. It sounds like a violent video game but it really just does a great job of finding and removing spyware from your computer. The second program we like to use is called Lavasoft Ad-Aware. Why two programs? We've found that each of these programs is very good at catching and removing what the other program misses, so using them together accomplishes a very effective spyware cleaning. Even better yet, both programs are completely free and we've made them available for you to download from our website. To download the Spybot installer click here, and to download the Ad-Aware installer click here. Another good spyware removal program is Microsoft Windows Defender which comes built into Windows Vista and can also be installed into Windows XP for free by clicking here to download it from Microsoft. Once you've downloaded and installed your spyware removal programs, follow the instructions to run a scan on your system and clean up that spyware. You'll be amazed to find your computer running much faster again, more like the way it did when you first bought it. Of course there could be other reasons causing your computer slowdown, but based on our own experience we're betting that spyware is the cuplrit and a couple of easy scans will have you feeling like you've got a snappy brand new computer all over again. As always we thank you for choosing Brainstorm Internet! We appreciate you as our customer and invite you to stop by our offices anytime if you have a question or a problem, or if you just want to say hi to our friendly staff. Your Brainstorm Internet Team

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