My system is very slow and sluggish on bootup and when initially going to internet. Makes me think I have one of those programs that is sending out information about where I've been and what I've been doing on the internet.

I'm upgrading my system soon, so I don't want to spend a bunch of money on this system.

Anyone know a free download that's worth trying to sweep my system for this?

Spywareblaster

Spybot Search and Destroy

are 2 that I use.

malwarebytes is what I use. also try ccleaner for speeding up your system.

If you have ANY kind of decent anti-virus program, you would have been alerted to any type of malware related activity.

Just clear out the cookies, clear out the temperary internet files, and defrag your harddrive.  Your computer should run faster (depending on how old it is of course).

Toolwiz Care> Freeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I avoid all-in-one freebie utilities as they end up causing more harm than good usually.

First get rid of any toolbar add-ons like yahoo, free wallpaper downloader, junk like that, using add remove programs. Then assuming you use windows, download firefox browser, google chrome is good, but if you dont know your way around reg files it is a a great big tracking device for google to try to drive you to targeted ads, ever notice you go to pizza hut to order online then, next time you fire up chrome you get "well look at that! a pizzahut promo!" lol

set the browser to private browsing in tools, chrome has incognito but googole analytics still keeps tabs on what you do.

get microsoft security essentials.

its small enuf to fit on a usb stick, and you will always have it to load prior to going online.

just type in "microsoft security essentials download" and make sure you are at windows.microsoft dot com. I would post a link , but that is my biggest taboo around my house, never click links, type in what you want! spoofs are major portals of viruses.

While I shun freeware stuff, this in a sense is not free, since you bought window's allready, so this is really in microsoft's best interest to offer this  antivirus s/w  since those of us who build pc's know the very first time you you boot up and go online with windows to download your paid for antivirus(my case, Norton) your like a newborn antelope in the african plains,helpless!!

The issue i have with spyware scanners is they themselves reqr resources, are too generic in their settings, delete reg entries they shouldnt, and skip the bad stuff. Also, simply because it was free, the bad people have it too and usually long before the average joe internet user, and can easily circumvent it just by looking under the hood and seeing what it is designed to look for and little tweak here and there, now its useless!

If you got  a mac, its probobly best to hit the apple forums, i know little about mac.

The Great Linux Debate- if you dont mind having to spend most of you time looking for drivers to plug in your canon hotshot camera, and every other device known to man,devices that windows sees, loads, configures in the time it took to say "sees loads and configures", then linux is for you

Man im gonna hear about it now from the penguin groupies.

also look at the posts from this member,

NimzoRoy

  he pretty savy, and has some very well written forums on software and security stuff

"If you got  a mac, its probobly best to hit the apple forums ..." ..if you got a mac you are free of problems like that :)

hehe, thats what i hear! got nothing against Mac's other than the price, but if your a graphic artist or web designer, I know they are the preferred       machine

Avast, Avira and AVG all have good free AV versions available.

Look them up and AV ratings/reviews in general at www.cnet.com and www.pcworld.com.

Make sure your AV program is updated daily which is about the best you can do with a free version. Premium versions offer the option to update several times daily and when I used Avira premium I had it update every 2 hrs.

Make sure your OS is 100% up-to-date 24/7 as well.

Next time try describing your OS and PC when you want help with these issues.

Holy apparition Batman!!

Speak of the devil.

Linux rules

I don't think so, and neither does anyone else who knows what they're talking about. MACs maybe safer overall but they are not invulnerable to malware.

http://mashable.com/2012/04/24/1-in-5-macs-has-malware-study/

They already have. However, I have read that linux/unix is pretty much invulnerable to malware (but I wouldn't take my word for it without further research)

There is a vast and interesting segment using Linux: the majority of the internet servers have Linux as their OS.

The desktops for Suse and Ubuntu are quite well. I never had any big problems using hardware, but I am not using very sophisticated or hype sensitive things nor am I gaming otherwise then playing chess. Linux has its security issues as well, it is not safe to think that you are safe because you use Linux. Technology alone is not enough, because that is security based on obscurity. You will definitely be more secure when you use Slackware then Windows or the Mac, but it does not mean that your behaviour can not be tracked using cookies and the like nor that your computer can not serve as an email server for spam.

Security and internet are like black and white: they are opposites with a lot of grey nuances in between. Your behavior is very important with regards to the security of your computer - I do not want to imply that the original requester of this topic is behaving insecure -, but it is just like walking in an unknown city: if you stay out of the obvious dangerous places, you are probably much safer. Buying on the internet, downloading movies or trailers, opening all kinds of email, using cracks for some programs are all more or less unsafe behaviour.

Linux is more stable and it is more secure. Something to do with the myriad of disk partitions which act as a barrier from one part of the OS to another, making it more difficult for viruses to spread.

Another point, though, dealing with both Linux and Mac, is this: Microsoft (for better or for worse) is the "big boy on the block" and everyone wants to pick on the big guy. I believe this is a major reason why we have so many viruses targeting Microsoft OS; they're the ones everyone wants to beat.

Possibly true, but I think the motive is simpler than that. There are far more PC's in use AND PC's are more vulnerable, so PCs are the easiest and most profitable targets.

I use FreeBSD, and have not had any security problems :D

Disk partitioning has nothing to do with any difficulty for viruses to spread itself. The major feature of Linux OS is that any programs is running as an user. That user is allowed to do some things and other things not. When a virus is entering a Linux program, then will that act as the user, who is executing it. If that user happened to be root (aka superuser) then can the virus do anything it wants, but when it runs as an ordinairy user, then will it not be as powerfull. It might not even being able to execute itself.

Windows is much more benign for people who are not familiar with the internals of a computer. When you really want to profit from Linux, then must you delve into how it all works. Hence might you say that the OS of Linux means Open Source, whereas the OS of Windows means Open System.

Well if you are comparing to Windows Vista...

According to what I've read one of the main virus problems for MACs is that they can download Windows viruses, which can then  infect  Windows software if any is used. If none is used I'm not convinced MACs are immune from MAC malware and I'm guessing there are MAC AV programs that aren't resource hogs, so why not run one?