[SHAVED]

Hi Guys,
I am using avast antivirus which is in its full cover up. I am using AdwareSE once in every two weeks. Recently I have noticed that my system is running very slow. I am using P4 - 40GB Hard disk - 128mb ram with Windows XP Professional. I have 3 partitions and all of them are 80% free. I can say that it was hanging on everything. I doubted virus infection and scanned all the disks but nothing came out. I was planning to format one of my hard disks but I skipped that idea. My automatic updates were on and I got some security updates which I installed. After restarting my computer I got a big dialogue box with more than 20 items as malware which was removed from my system. I would appreciate if anyone can tell how all those malwares got into my system without being caught by the antivirus and why it was not found by AdwareSE. Today I have noticed that my system is still going slow.

[Curlyben]

Have you made sure all your drivers and patches are up to date ?
A load more RAM certainly wouldn't go a miss. XP runs best with at least 512Mb ;)
Worth try are some other anti spyware/virus apps and some system maintenance.
Most of these steps will work with any Operating System

Here's some simple steps for you to take.
1/ Remove temp files and other rubbish form your system, either with inbuilt Disc Clean up or CCleaner. (Ccleaner also has a good registry cleaner as well)
(Disc clean up; open my computer > right click your C: drive > properties > Disc clean up button on general tab. Let it run and select everything)
2/ Defrag; open my computer > right click your C: drive > properties > Tools tab > Defragament now button.
3/ Error checking; open my computer > right click your C: drive > properties > Tools tab > Top button > check now. Check BOTH boxes, OK the error message and reboot.
4/ Page file; Right click 'my computer' > properties > advanced tab > Performance settings button > advanced tab > Virtual memory (near the bottom). To make things easier for you select System managed size > click set > then OK's all the way out again. (I suggest 'system managed' as there is no consensus on min and max sizes to set)
5/ To make sure everything is running fine also run both anti virus and anti spyware apps (make sure that they are updated first ;)) (AVG is good and free AV)
(A couple of good removal tools are Spybot and Adaware)
Spybot has a good feature called Immunize which stops a whole bunch of malware installing itself in the first place.

ALso an on line virus and spyware scanner is Trend Housecall

[SHAVED]

Thanks ben,
Temp files were all removed but I will now use the CCleaner.
Disk Clean up has been done.
Error checking done.
The only thing which I did not do is the Page file which I will do right now.
I have used Spybot before> I will download it and use it.
I have done the AdawareSE
I will try AVG instead of avast.
Will let you know the result.

[NeedKarma]

Check your running processes and Google any that look suspicious.

[LTheobald]

You didn't mention if you were running a firewall or not. I would recommend downloading one if you aren't. ZoneAlarm for example (link in sig). The firewall that comes with Windows XP isn't all that good.

Also because of Ad-Awares popularity, modern malware is coming up with better ways of hiding from the program. I would recommend running a couple of spyware tools (I use Ad-Aware & Spybot: S&D) and always running the scans in Safe Mode (after updating the defitions in normal XP mode).

[SHAVED]

Hi everybody,
I forgot the issue of firewall. I was using only the windows firewall and now I have installed the SPYGATE. I have not gone through it yet.

In fact I have done all the other things with CCleaner, Spybot and the Antivirus sweep which has cleared a lot of adwares and win32 infections. I have done the Page File settings as suggested by Ben but still my system is scrolling like a snail. What I have recently noticed that one of my drive partition is showing a used space of 2mb even though I have not saved anything it. I tried to locate the contents in that drive but nothing is showing. There are no hidden files or folders then What are the files taking
2mb disk space. A friend of mine was using the system and he does not remember if had done anything in that partition. I tried to format that partition but in vain. It says that "system partition is not allowed for format". Why can't I do the format in that particular partition? Hi guys your help is highly appreciated.

Hi,
I have noticed something just now. The physical memory is 128mb but available memory is only 9 to 10mb. I checked similar machines in the office where the physical memory is 256mb and available memory with so many files 76-80mb.
I am sure this will be the reason for my pc going slow. Any suggestion on this issue.