Ed Bott who is a windows expert and a former editor of PC World has a great blog I often read. He some time back blogged about this subject, it is a very informative read as well as the comments area following it. I will provide a link. I know a lot of people that use various cleaner programs, and really it is a what works for one does not always work for someone else situation with them. Each person has different experience just as each user has different pc usage. The main reason for the caution in my post was simply to warn those that are not familiar with these products to know that there are situations that can occur that could really be unfortunate. Plus there are those companies out there that prey on novice users and put out junk products(all kinds of products). I think the greatest thing is when a person takes it upon themselves to educate and seek info and research deeply before taking on any kind of task! That is the real way to learn. Do your research and read all the pros and cons then you can make an informed decision. YES acting smart is definitely not being smart.... being smart is being informed and proceeding with caution (after major backups)! LOL Here is a link that might be useful: Ed's blog

For added security, I would suggest you download and install Spyware Blaster. All you need to do is update it periodically. Here is a link that might be useful: Spyware Blaster

Gillian you should most certainly have created a backup of your registry before proceeding with the cleaning. This allows the opportunity (maybe) to return to the original state if the cleaning goes wrong. It will create a copy of the registry only and is quite small. To me cleaning the registry is a last resort if I am having problems and no other type of clean up or test seems to cure the ills. It is certainly not a casual thing to be used like an anti spyware program for example. As regards Ccleaner, I use it at the default settings and find it an excellent program.

OK, I understand and it makes sense. Sometimes, on these forums its easy to forget that its not just forum members and GW that can read posts. I'll try the other ways suggested. Thanks for all your time and the explanations. I've done some googling and I'm not seeing what would be expected from Zlob. No popups, nor sites that pop up telling me I've been infected and click here to remove. and I haven't been to any porn sites, unless you'd call searching for California King bedding on legitimate sites porn. What I am seeing is cursor not responding properly, and sometimes getting a strange mssg. on AVG antispy saying "connect to server" when I'm already connected and trying to run a search. Still under warranty but Best Buy Geek said it would take 7-10 days to diagnose. Yikes! Think I'll buy a new mouse in hopes that will help. I'm a Bills fan, so used to hoping for miracles. Thanks again, all. Sandy