Is there a way to clean out all or most the slow causing "bugs" without a full restore? Is it more of a hassle than backing up and restoring?
How do you mean bugs? This is not another case of mites in the CD-ROM drive is it? What is troubling your system?
By bugs I assume you mean all the little things that slow your computer down. The main problems you will face are: Viruses, worms and trojans - These will have a great inpact on your performance. To protect yourself don't ever download email attachments and always keep a good antivirus like [google]AVG Free[/google] or [google]Avast Free[/google] to mention some free ones. Also keep your AV updated, with my AVG it automatically checks and downloads updates every time my PC is on if I have an internet connection. Spyware. Less obvious than other types of malware, these will monitor your internet activities and send data without you knowing to marketers. A serious invasion of privacy and security you can protect yourself by keeping software like [google]Ad-aware personal[/google] updated like your antivirus. Crap programs. Simply these are programs that you've installed which run in the background. 90% of these are not required for the system to run, so be harsh when you're dealing with these. Either uninstall them, or go to start>run>msconfig>startup tab and uncheck the ones you don't need. You can also check for miscellaneous programs by using CTRL-ALT-DEL and going to processes. Lastly, you can protect yourself from threats by using a more secure web browser like Firefox. I've converted many people to Firefox, and all of them agree that they would never go back to Internet Explorer. Not only is it more functional and useful (you can download custom extensions and skins at your leisure) but its more secure than IE. Anyway, if you do find a site that doesn't work properly in Firefox then you'll still have IE incase (the site probably isn't standards compliant).
Thanks for all the info Addis...so should I restore my system and then follow these steps or can I clean up my system without a restore? ...which is easier? (I'm speaking of my sony vaio which is a super simple to restore its just the backing up I'm worried about). And is it wise to back up my bugged computer by saving the files to another computer on the same network or do I run the risk of bugging the second computer? Don't mean to go on but how do I know what are "Crap Programs"?.. many don't have names I recognize.
You can either simply do a Google search for each unrecognised program or you can tell the forums which ones you do not recognise and we may be able to help you define them.
