Hehe...the men in my life will only add to my frustration, I am sure.  ;)  And I know no other RL females to pose this question to, who would have the slightest idea what's wrong... I figure someone on here is PC savvy, so...

I am worried that someone has hacked into my computer or that I have a virus.  One day last week, I turned on my PC and several of the desktop icons were rearranged.  Like totally on the other side of the desktop.  And plus my PC has been acting weird, like running REALLY slow and freezing up...

So if I have a virus/been a hacker victim, how can I fix my PC?  Just tell me what buttons to push....please...

No one else but me uses my computer.  I am especially concerned about the moved icons.  They don't just usually get up and move themselves....do they???

Gotta run...Later....

Man - this is not a good night for me.  I had this all typed up and lost it.   ::)

I would start with running a spyware program, followed by an adware program.  I use SpyBot and AdAware.  Both are freeware programs that you can download at these addresses:

Here is the address for the Adaware program I use:
http://www.lavasoft.com/software/adaware/

and here is the address for SpyBot:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

After running these programs,, reboot your computer.  See if things run better.  If not, then I would recommend that you purchase an anti-virus software package such as Norton or McAfee.

Good luck!

I'm sorry i can't help you. My computer used to do that too, when we tried to fix it the guy (men, huh ::)) said "no hope, just throw it away" :P

But the other day there was a report on the news, they said that there is an e-mail that arrives every month on the third, basicaly it is a virus- i'm not sure what it's called something like "scripes"- so they advise not to open any mail....TOMORROW!

Sorry i'm no help :P :-[

Bikerbraid, THANK YOU, you're a gem! :) :) :)

I downloaded both programs, and it turned out I had 57 bad spy things and 100 bad ad things on my PC.  All now happily taken care of.  

My computer originally belonged to two of my brothers, so...no telling WHAT was on there, and for how long.  ::)   :P

BEESAN--thank you for the warning about the email virus that is supposed to strike on the 3rd of each month.  I had not heard of that, so I will beware.  

GRATIAS!!!  :) :) :)  

Yay!  Ladie's to the rescue!  ;D

Christiana;
I'm glad you were able to clean up your machine.  If you spend a lot of time online, I'd recommend you run those programs weekly to keep things cleaned up. Spyware and ad programs can really slow down your computer, not to mention the potential damage that might occur.

My rule of thumb for emails - never open an email from an address I don't know, and NEVER open a program attached to an email that is an executable (ends in .exe).  I use Hotmail for a lot of my email, it has a virus scan built in that scans any attachements for viruses.  Hotmail is a free email site.  A plus or minus, depending on how you like to do things - Hotmail emails are not stored on your computer, they remain on the web.

good luck!