I shudder to think what kind of valuable data was lost by the user. I keep my system clean (SpySweeper, AdAware Pro, SpyBot, NOD32, ZoneAlarm Pro) but I still do all of my transactions and important web forms in Linux.

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Most people just assume that Windows gets slower over time, and it does, even when nothing is wrong. A lot of technical people reinstall the OS every six months or every year, so they don't notice it as much. Average people, for the most part, just think they have to buy a new computer after it slows down a lot. It's hard for them to gauge how much of the slowdown is normal, due to too many programs being installed and loading shell extensions or little tray programs at startup, how much is due to registry bloat, and how much of the slowdown is due to spyware/viruses.

I agree though, one of the reasons I switched to Macs was because there is much less of this junk.

It would be in your best interest to back up whatever you need,then reformat and reinstall.It will probably take day's for you to clean it up and there are things that AVG will never find.

Try out some of those free online scanners as they do virus and spyware scans on the same time.Note that you will need to use internet explorer to use those online services.

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Thats almost exactly what I do.. except I don't even use anti spyware programs. the worst thing they ever find on my pc are maybe a few tracking cookies.

Windows seems to slow down over time, but so to an extent does hardware. My PC is for the most part about 4 years old. During those 4 years, it has for all intents and purposes been on 24/7. When I very first installed XP on it, it took less than 30 minutes. That for me was just flabbergasting. But now my Western Digital Raptor is not as healthy as it once was. It has a 5 year warranty, which makes me really believe that WD believe in their product, but there's no denying insofar as my senses tell me, that in spite of the fact that I've 3 times the RAM I did 4 years ago, the machine is slower and less reliable than it was new.

Windows has been reinstalled a couple of times, but certainly not every six months and the only real advantage to doing so, if you keep your computer spyware and virus free and tidy is not one of speed but of reliability. Windows gradually starts to crash more rather than lag out as years progress.

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Computer hardware does not slow down over time. Not at all. The entire slowdown you're experiencing is due to operating system and software issues. It's only fair to place the blame for the problem where it is due. (Especially when you have 3 times the memory you once did!) Microsoft, one of the most profitable companies in the world, can afford to deliver a more robust system, but they will only do so if enough people genuinely protest and legitimately consider alternatives. Blaming the hardware is voodoo that lets the real culprits off scot-free.

*****?

Well the way to test would be for me to compare a brand new Raptor to my beaten in increasingly noisy 4 year old one. However I'm not parking over money just to find out.

Hard drives are always the ultimate system bottleneck for general use purposes IMO. And theres no doubt in my own mind, having used this system for as long as I have, that its the OS boot drive/swap file drive aging thats the root of my slowdown issues. Reinstalling the OS resulted in only the most utterly minor speed boost for me when I did it last after more than 20 months on the previous installation.

My sister-in-law had a similar situation. She had her two sons on several chat rooms and also many gaming sites. She felt like her computer had "slowed" to a crawl and asked me to clean things up and remove some unwanted software to free disc space. When I checked things, her PC had been totally hijacked by viruses. I couldn't even get into the msconfig or do a safe boot. In the end, I decided to wipe it all clean and reinstall the OS. She's oblivious to internet threats and precautions. As long as she "can check her email and surf", she's content. Mention antivirus software or spyware and she's not interested. Some folks are just that way. Needless to say that she was totally blown away by the PC once everything was clean and mean again. Lasted about 4 months and some of the same garbage started to happen so I assumed she'd let it get bad again. Since I live ~2 hours from her, she decided to take it in to the Geek Squad for help. I'm sure she'll keep giving them a lot of business over the years. My advice....don't beat your head against a wall trying to convert that person. They probably won't listen and you'll simply waste stomach lining in the attempt.

OS X FTW!!

windows start up definitely gets slower over time.. every time you install and run a program it will load it every time you start up windows to cut down on individual load times. You can turn it off for faster start ups... but it still is slow compared to a macs start up.

woo

Defrag... degrag.... degrag... I get amazing speed up everytime.

Defrag makes little difference on a well maintained system ime.

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And I don't.

Anyway, my one friend's computer is so riddled with malware than I'm afraid to use it whenever I get on. While he has cable internet, it is about as slow as dial-up, and it crashes so much that I don't even know how they manage to use it.

The thing with Windows is that while it is a great operating system (IMHO), it needs to be used correctly and maintained. Since it's the most popular OS in the world right now, it is also the most targeted by the bad people, so you need to stay on your toes.