If you are experiencing any of these spyware symptoms listed below, chances are you have spyware or other unwanted software installed on your computer.

• Slower Computer Performance

One of easiest spyware symptoms to detect is if your system suddenly starts operating slower than usual. Spyware and Adware programs use a lot of your computer resources to track your activities and deliver pop up ads that slow down your computer and can even make it crash. If you are getting a lot of program crashes, your computer is much slower than normal or your hard drive whirls away when you're not doing anything, these are common spyware symptoms.

• E-Mail Symptoms

If you get a lot of bounced back email and see evidence of email being sent without your knowledge, then it's possible that you have spamware in your computer files.

Spamware can send spam messages from your computer and create a lot of headaches for you. Trojan spamware is very dangerous because it can steal a copy of your email address book and send it back to an email spammer.

• New Desktop Shortcuts or Homepage

Whether you are a new user or advanced one, whether this is your first computer or second (or even third), be clear as to why you want a computer before you even think of buying one.

How will you use your computer? Are you only interested in browsing Internet and checking e-mail? Do you plan to use your PC as a programming machine? Do desktop publishing or video editing feature on your agenda? Or is it a gaming rig? What is a computer? http://www.hardwaresoftwarearticles.com/

Consider these factors before stepping into a hardware shop.

The basic components of a computer system are motherboard (containing processor and memory), keyboard, mouse, monitor, diskette drive, CD-ROM drive and hard drive.

In addition, there are several other types of devices you may or may not need. A trackball, joy stick, modem, tape drive, zip drive, printer, plotter, scanner, sound card and speakers, television card and video capture card, to name a few.

Whether you buy these will depend on what you need computer for and which software applications you intend to use.

Remember golden rule: fastest or most expensive computer is not necessarily one you need.

Finally, length of time that you plan to own computer before replacing it will also help determine which computer to buy.

2. What is your budget?

This is next thing you need to be certain of. How much are you willing to spend on a PC?

After you arrive at a figure, keep a margin of a few thousands. It will give you some room for flexibility. If you are short on money when you buy your computer and cannot add all peripherals you want, be smart. Hardware: http://www.hardwaresoftwarearticles.com/archive/index.php/f-21.html

Buy as much as you can afford. Don't cut corners on main system unit (monitor, processor, memory, disk space).

Remember, you want computer to last at least four years. You don't want to run out of disk space or memory in very first year, all because you trimmed down on memory or got a smaller hard drive.

Hard disk capacity matters a great deal as it takes no time for data to fill available space. A 40 GB hard disk is sufficient disk space, but 80 GB is standard recommendation.