Often, due to haste or carelessness, we agree to install various download assistants on websites, inattentively read the conditions when installing programs, and also give permission to optimize browser settings. As a result, advertising windows start popping up everywhere, some casinos load instead of your home page, and the browser, before opening the desired link, shows a scattering of incomprehensible sites. At the same time, everything is incredibly slow.
If the described symptoms are familiar to you, most likely, unwanted adware or, as they are called, Adware got on the computer. Usually antiviruses do not respond to them, because technically they are not viruses. It is very difficult to remove such software manually, but there are special utilities for this. For example, it is free and does not even require the installation of AdwCleaner, which is able to recognize and neutralize individual advertising applications and those running in the browser.
To clean your computer from ads, download the utility from the link and open it with a double click.
Click "Run Scan" and wait for the scan to finish.
If threats are found, click on the "Quarantine" button and confirm the restart of the computer for cleaning.
After that, you can run AdwCleaner again, go to the "Quarantine" section and delete all detected threats by clicking the appropriate button.
In addition to advertising and spyware malware, the clutter of the operating system often interferes with the fast operation of the computer. Over time, Windows can accumulate a lot of temporary files, remnants of deleted programs and other garbage. It is best to get rid of it by regular means.
Open the standard Disk Cleanup application via the search.
Select all file types to clean up and click OK.
Confirm the deletion by clicking the button of the same name.
Wait for the procedure to complete.
If desired, enable the automatic cleaning function. To do this, click "Options" in the Start menu or press Win + I, and then open the "System" → "Memory" section.
Turn on the "Memory Control" toggle switch.
Inside the menu, you can configure the cleaning frequency, as well as run the function without waiting for a schedule.
Without replacing PC components, you can increase performance if you reduce the load on the processor and memory. To do this, you need to remove unnecessary applications from the startup list, thereby freeing up precious resources, and also uninstall programs on the system disk so that it is not overflowed.
To view the startup list, open "Options" from the Start menu or press Win + I, and then go to "Applications" → "Startup".
Carefully study which software is automatically launched when Windows starts. Disable all programs that you do not need immediately after booting the PC by deactivating the toggle switches in front of them.
Go to the "Applications and Features" section.
Set the size sorting and the "Local Disk (With:)" filter. Press the three dots in front of large unnecessary applications and delete them using the appropriate button.
This material was first published in January 2017. In May 2023, we updated the text.
