spywareblaster is not a scanner type program it sits in the background and helps to keep you protected from malicious sites, I use it on all my windows computers and highly recommend it, you just install the free version, then click on updates, then click on the enable all protection so that the shield is green as long as the shield is green and you have all the updates you are good. I manually check for updates about once a week. for a good program that you can have on the pc no problems with any antivirus programs is malwarebytes. i would get the free version update it and run full scan with it once a week or so. Here are the directions, but I personally always do a full scan instead of the quick one. How to download and install Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware application for Windows computers I would do that scan now since you think you may have something on it now, let us know if it finds anything.

I've been using Firefox since longer than I can remember, and a beta version has never been pushed to me. Auto-updates to release versions, yes. Beta versions, no (I am not subscribed to the beta channel and have never been forced to it). Regards to browser security, there's a newly discovered vulnerability in the SSLv3 protocol -- POODLE is the acronym. It's a combination of browser and server. SSLv3 was superseded some while ago by TLS, but many servers are still running SSLv3 (along with TLS). A secure browser connection that starts on TLS can be tricked into downgrading to SSL 3.0 (if the connecting server still supports it), and a hacker can intercept bits of the data flow when that happens. The expectation is that SSL 3.0 will not be patched since it's considered outdated. Servers that are running it will (should) soon be reconfigured to no longer support it. Users who are running old browsers that don't support TLS will no longer be able to connect to secure sites such as online banking or shopping after servers no longer support SSLv3. The recommended defense until servers are fixed to to eliminate SSLv3 is for users to set their browser to not allow SSL 3.0 connections (minimum TLSv1). If your old browser of choice (or requirement) doesn't support TLS then you're stuck being susceptible, and will be out-of-luck when SSLv3 is fully redacted. IE6 , for example, supports TLSv1 but the option is not enabled by default, it must be manually turned on. (TLS is currently up to v3, which IE6 does not support past TLSv1.) Test your browser

I don't think a user with normal PC experience (and with neither exposure to nor understanding of the depths and bowels of the project) can knowledgeably assess whether or not to do a software update. Even someone with advanced technical knowledge can often not make sense of details gained from only an over-the-fence peek. My advice - accept all updates. When there are cosmetic or unintended hiccups, they're usually detected and fixed in days. For Windows, have restore points so that problems can be rolled back. For browsers, have two or more onboard and current. If one starts acting silly, use another for awhile. As far as differences between browsers? Eh, not really to my eye. They all do the same things the same ways. Some are smaller, some are larger. As with most software, most people don't need or use the bells and whistles so special features don't much matter.

In case you're wanting to organize your "Bookmarks Toolbar" a little... 1) Right-Click within the bookmarks toolbar, either an empty area or a preexisting bookmark (the folder will be created to the left of the bookmark you click but if you don't get it exactly where you want it, you can still drag it to where you want it) 2) Either name it as you create it or right click it later to rename it 3) Drag all the bookmarks into it that you want. 4) You can always drag them around to reorder (or right click them to delete, rename, etc.) Not sure if this video is scaled such that you can see what's going on but this is how I would create a folder, call it "mail" and drag bookmarks into it. . Yes, I probably have Firefox setup to look differently than yours but I would think it would work the same.