Look at this picture

I use a firewall too.

People will visit sex sites & warez sites & sites with stolen music,etc.

Lots of seemingly safe sites will add tracking cookies & other crap to a computer.

I read lots of posts about being infected with popups & spyware & viruses & things not working right.
That used to happen to me until,after years of learning to avoid such things,my computer runs good with only minor glitches.
Which are easily fixed by me after using Error Reporting or using Google.

I recently added 256 MBs of RAM.
No problems after doing it because the clerk was a knowledgeable person who opened up a computer on the shelf like mine & pointed to the slot & said put it there.
I did & it worked fine.

Some people delete programs without using the uninstall program & lose shared dll files.

It's a good idea to ask a few questions before doing anything to your computer at all if you have never done it before.

Lots of people are new to computers.
They do stupid things.
(I used to do stupid things.)
I learned to ask questions & use Google.

I guess I'm just saying to safeguard your computer with a firewall & antivirus & antispyware & antiadware & look before you leap into a situation that will mess up your computer.
Don't be afraid to ask for help either by using a forum or doing it yourself by using a search engine.

That's all.
Ranting & venting is over for now.
I feel better now.
I hope this all helps someone to maintain a smoothly running computer.

Don't get frustrated.
Learn from mistakes.

Thanks for the rant, even considering that each PC and it's user differ,
experience can & will develop the individual combinations of
software & hardware that do the "trick".
Important thing is: understanding of the realities presented to that PC as it gets used.

Those understandings are possible, as you said "by asking a few questions before you press on".
BleepingComputer strives to make it a bit easier to ask, to answer & to get answers.

I've been around computers, in one form or another, for over 30 years, and I still do stupid things... you can never stop learning in this game.

While I will admit I've done a fair number of stupid things with my computer I don't think you need to have quite that much running to be safe. The only program you need running at all times for safety is a firewall and common sense. Personally, I use the one in XP and a hardware firewall (router) so no problems here. I think Floydoid is right, you really never can stop learning in this game.

Are you running Avast and AVG at the same time?? Running two antivirus' and/or two software firewalls at the same time is a bad thing. Chances are it was not Spybot that caused your conflict.
I have fix several computers where the only major problem was two antivirus program duking it out. They don't play nice together.
There are several very good freeware antivirus programs out there. I would ditch Avast (which is one of the very good one) to keep Spybot S&D. Spybot S&D is a very powerful tool.

AVG Free Edition Antivirus (I personally use)
Avast Home Edition Antivirus Freeware
AntiVir Personal Edition Classic Freeware
BitDefender 8 Free Edition

Sorry if I stuck my nose where it does not belong, but I thought you should know. Running the two antivirus' will lead to more problems.

Many of us can only agree with you.
One learns by experience, unfortunately, that is is a lot easier to get malware on your computer than it is to get rid of it.
One learns by experience, unfortunately, that the WWW is not always a safe place.

Having layered protection is a major step towards keeping your computer running and secure, and the most important layer is a careful and knowledgeable user like yourself.

Regards,
John

My screen name says it all! always a newbie to the world of computers and net.
You are right, we learn a lot from our experiences [but the clever ones learn from others experiences]. I too used to do a lot of stupid things, and still do.

Not stupid. Just we would choose different if me could. Learn and move on. Hopefully you can help someone else, and your advise will help them from making the same mistake.

Cant be as silly as taking your pc case apart to add more ram. seeing lots of dust inside and hoovering it out witha domestic hoover.. losing a screw from the case in the process..
Still works though.. thankfully

I missed this post. While an honest mistake and extremely funny it does not rate as stupid. Stupid would be cleaning the dusty off the motherboard with a wire brush with the power still plugged in. What you did rates as an "Oops!".

Spybot shares your info with advertising companies and will add a ususage cookie to your PC.

The authentic Spybot does not share your information, nor do you have to enter any. Visiting their website can result in a cookie, but you can always block it. Please note that there are rogue antispyware programs with similar names. The authentic Spybot S & D can be found here: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html, and a tutorial on how to use it can be found here: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial43.html

Orange Blossom