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Gremlins in My Computer
What to do if suddenly, there are a million popup windows on your computer? What to do if the computer is sluggish at times and even freezes up?
The first thing to do is check for viruses. Run a free online virus scan from the web. One site that doesn't require you to enter an email address is www.bitdefender.com (Click on Home User, then Online Scan). Other free online virus sites include http://housecall.trendmicro.com and http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/com/activescan_principal.htm . It doesn't matter if your regular antivirus software is current. Get another scan anyway. Think of it as having another set of eyes look at the computer.
If there is no virus on your computer, you may have spyware. Spyware tracks your surfing habits, and sends this data to a third party, or changes your browser start page or pages, alters important system files, and does this without your permission or knowledge
The next thing to do is get one of the spyware/malware programs to look at the computer. Ad-Aware (www.lavasoft.de) is a good one. Spybot Search and Destroy (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/home/) is another good one.
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