4. Install and run Adaware. Adaware is another free spyware/adware detection and removal tool. I've found that using just one spyware detection tool is not enough. Using these two tools will detect and remove a majority of spyware programs on your machine. This tool should be run in conjunction with Spybot. Again, make sure latest updates are downloaded and installed each time Adaware is used. Download it at http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/.

5. Use an Anti-virus program. Viruses can cause a lot of headaches for people. Since Viruses have been well publicized, I have noticed many people have an anti-virus program installed. However, people never update to latest definition file. This is a must because latest definition file will provide defenses against latest viruses. If you do not update this file, you are only protecting yourself against viruses that are known to date of definition file. Either setup your anti-virus program to automatically update definition file every week, or make sure that you manually update file every week.

6. Use Mozilla Firefox 1.0 browser. Change your browser to recently released free Firefox browser. Internet Explorer has many holes that spyware programs target and exploit. Microsoft has tried to keep up and release updates to fix problems, but it seems like after every fix a new vulnerability is discovered. To protect your system, just download Firefox and start to use it as your default browser. Firefox is setup very similar to Internet Explorer; so learning how to use new browser will not be a problem. You can configure browser to block pop-ups. This is a nice feature to battle those annoying pop-up windows. It also has a great tab feature. This allows you to open multiple pages inside one browser window. Visit http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ to download latest version.

The above spyware prevention system should help your computer or network stay protected and running at optimal performance. If you have never run a spyware program such as Spybot or Adaware I think you will be amazed at what is detected on your system. Sometimes I find over 100 suspect spyware programs installed on computers. No wonder your system is running slow.

If you export entire registry, .reg file will be quite large, between 20MB and 30MB. You might want to export just a specific branch of registry. To export a branch, highlight branch in left pane of Registry before selecting "Export Registry File..." in Registry Editor programs "Registry" menu. In "Export Range" section, make sure "Selected branch" radio button is set.

One reason to export a Registry file is to be able use a text editor to search it. The Registry Editor prgram has a "Find..." function in "Edit menu, but it's more difficult to use.

- Don't double-click file to open it in a text editor, as default action for a file with .reg extension is to merge it back into Registry.

- Before you edit registry file, make a backup copy.

Right-click on file and select "Open with..." in popup menu, or drag and drop file to Notepad or Wordpad. Then use capabilities of text editor to search and edit exported registry branch.

After you have completed editing file, you can import it back into Registry by selecting "Import Registry File" in Registry Editor program's "Registry" menu, or by double-clicking on file name.

The Registry is normally modified through Administrative or Control Panel utilities, but by using method described in this article it is possible to safely edit Registry directly.

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