How can I clean my PC?

My computer is running really slow, how can I "clean" my pc, is there a way to see what prgrams are running and stop unnecessary ones? Thanks for your help!

Hi, You can run the task Manager and this will show you the applications and services that you have running. This will give you the initial data to form the basis of your research.
A most valuable source of expert information is also to be found here:

http://forums.whatthetech.com/Expert_miekiemoes_t74374.html

Moreover to take a good look at your machine's overall configuration and current performance, it might be wise to:
Run the PCPitstop Full Tests, here:

http://www.pcpitstop.com

Register and create a password
Accept the ActiveX component to allow your machine to run the Full Tests
Registering and accepting the ActiveX are considered safe and are free.
Full Tests is the first item in the left hand column of that page.

The Full Tests take only a few minutes on most machines.
The report will provide you a full details on your machine and will indicate areas that may need attention.

Before you make any system changes I recommend that you make sure that your backup/archived/copy of all important information on your machine, is 100% up to date accurate and reproducible. Even if your backup/archive/copy is only a day or so out of date then please take the opportunity to update it before taking any action. It would not be overkill to also make a new system Restore point just in case of trouble.
If you need assistance on any of the items in the report then you can post the entire URL TechExpress Link back here into this thread and we will do our best to help.
TechExpress is the last item on the list in the yellow box in upper right area of any Results page.
Regards
paws

Here are the results to the px pitstop tests. I have a question, I have read that you should not have more than one firewall installed. I have comodo but I believe I still have the Windows firewall activated as well. Could that be slowing down my computer? Thanks for all your help!!

http://www.pcpitstop.com/techexpress.asp?id=DPAPHWMTRXVSNVTV

Hi, Yes you are correct. Generally it is not good to have 2 software firewalls running (active) at the same time, although it is Ok to have one software firewall active even if you are operating from behind a hardware firewall (like you find in most routers). It would be sensible to have your Comodo firewall ON and the Windows Firewall set to Off I am not familiar with the Comodo firewall but generally good quality firewalls like Comodo often switch off the Windows firewall automatically. You can easily check this by going to Control Panel> Security Centre and scrolling down to Windows Firewall and clicking on it. (it's at the bottom of the page) don't be deceived by the reference at the top of the page to Firewall as this will probably show as "On" and almost certainly will refer to the Comodo firewall. In the same way its not good to have more than one anti virus application running (active) as there is a good chance of conflicts arising, so have a good check that you are not running 2 anti virus programmes at the same time. If you were to have 2 AVs active at the same time you could expect conflicts and slow downs and possibly system instability. Your PcPitStop recommendations will make a bit of difference to your machine if you implement them and recheck fairly regularly. Regards paws

OK, sorry for the stupid question. But I am not even sure what I have for antivirus. I know I have the AVG free vesion, and I also have Spybot that I will run at least once a week. Is that OK?

Hi, Please be assured that no questions are considered as being stupid, all of us here are learning every day, some folks here are quite far along their journey of learning, others are just starting out, and there's also a lot of folks who are somewhere in the middle! I had another look at your Pcpitstop report and you seem to have AVG anti virus installed together with some references to Symantec (Live update etc) Symantec are famous for a range of products including the well known anti virus programme called Norton. It would be as well to check in Control Panel (add and remove programmes) to see if you have Norton installed as it would not be wise to have AVG antivirus and Norton anti virus running (active) at the same time. I see that you also have run Kaspersky online anti virus scanning tool ( a really good and reputable scanner) and this is OK as generally online scanners tend to get on quite well with "resident" antivirus programmes. Spybot search and Destroy is another fine product (its up to version 1.5 now) so if you are running an older version its time for an update. However you can overdo the antispyware protection programmes by having too many running and providing active real time protection, So if you can, try to limit your self to: 1 software 2 way firewall 1 Running active protection anti virus 1 Running active protection anti spyware 1 Hardware firewall (within your router usually) its OK to run the other things on demand, but not to have then all running active at the same time. This would definitely slow down your machine and I have seen machines that have been prectically crippled in performance terms by owners who have gone slightly "overboard" on running active security products. You seem to be keeping your Java up to date and that is very sensible as some of the older versions have vulnerabilites that the bad guys can exploit ( Its usually best to uninstall the old versions, the current version is 6..update 3). From a security point of view often its the computer operator that presents the greatest risks……its great to have good software protection but can be a mistake to rely upon it too heavily. There's lots of good information on security and protection over on our malware removal forum so why not take a look over there as its possible to learn a great deal from the experts there just by reading the posts. Regards paws