Whenever I had a problem with my computer a friend of mine who knew a lot about computers would save all my programs somewhere, wipe out my computer’s memory or whatever and then reload all the programs. This was a better way than trying to diagnose each problem. I don’t know exactly what he did. Does anybody? If so, how difficult is it to do? My understanding of computers is very rudimentary. It seems I need to clean out my computer in this way on a regular basis because it seems that I’m always picking up stuff while surfing the internet that I’m not aware of that clutters up the system. The last time my friend cleaned out my computer was years ago, and by now my computer has really slowed down. I receive tons of messages popping up all the time saying that one thing or another isn’t working or some kind of warning, and it seems like programs are running all the time. I can’t even shut off the thing without like three or four messages telling me that the program I’m trying to shut off is not responding. I use several cleaning programs regularly. They are: Free Internet Window Washer, CCleaner, Spybot Search and Destroy, Ad-Aware SE Personal. Sorry for the rant, but it’s gotten to the point where it’s difficult using the thing anymore. Any help would be appreciated. xxxxxxxxxx

he could have made backups of all the data you wanted to keep. He then could run system restore, or a clean reinstall. This is what I do anyway. I'm here to help as best I can...