i am afraid your pc has canser

http://www.mikemartin.co/system_guides/hardware/networking

some of this stuff might hinder your connection, so save your results on speedtest and pingtest before and after with each tweak and revert it if it doesn't work.

http://www.speedtest.net/
http://www.pingtest.net/

reformatting is the only way to be sure you're not in a botnet and 100% virus free. i recommend microsoft security essentials for your antivirus.

anyway the best "tricks" are to to get a better internet provider and to not use wireless.

format c:/

have done recently. My computer is actually running very smooth, just wondering if there was anything i don't know about.

Ccleaner

Or do a clean install, make an image when you think youre comper is slow put the image back

Ccleaner doesn't remove malicious software, especially FUD.
.

if you have good router/browser/isp and a brain you dont need AV and firewall, not even windows Firewall.

It's fun to click shady links : ))

NoScript

Yeah, once your machines gets compromised you wont even know. Have fun with that.

before id dropped the support i would have suggested: install linux if you are using a nvidia gpu D:

but now its "good luck fighting the constantly sinking ship" that windows is i guess =)

Only sinking if you are mentally uncapable. ))

not really. last time i booted into win7 i wanted to play some dirt3, turns out its still not rewritten and still requires "games for windows live" .. so i installed that (cuz theres no other way to even start the game) -> but then guess what? gfwl client was unable to connect or create an offline account for god knows what reason and the game wouldnt start.
another time i was installing adobe illustrator to work a bit at home.. turns out any recent version is installed via an "adobe cloud" bullshit that has to run constantly aswell as an updater.

the whole OS is just all about "throwing away all useless crap at first" and then "trying to stop it installing as much useless crap as possible". good luck tho with running the system without directx, java, flash and all that malware crap that pretends to be mandatory even tho it isnt. im not talking about the "d'uh how to i prevent getting a virus or trojan" which are casuals problems.

so.... windows is a sinking ship because of the softwares you install? lol?

"Yeah, my android sucks, it has all these trojan apps that I chose to install, Im going to switch to iOS!"

btw, even though I agree that GFWL is crap, you could make an offline account by looking carefully through their agreement.

you wrote: "you could make an offline account"
as a reply to: "unable to connect or create an offline account"

.. yes

You have to chosse which softwares and versions you use with insight, then, it will work like a charm. ;)

neither do i have the choice which illustrator trial version to download (then again i could look for an older warez version.. but what the heck) nor is there any way to get a GFWL game without GFWL unless it was ported to steam or something later on (which most arent).

lets not open the OS discussion all over again, the interwebs is filled with that crap. with "constantly sinking ship" i merely meant exactly what you said - you always have to consider and check what you do and it requires permanent awareness to keep your system healthy and clean. funnily enough this means windows actually requires you to be the bigger nerd =)

"you always have to consider and check what you do and it requires permanent awareness to keep your system healthy and clean"

That's not "sinking ship" but "conscious utilization". lmao

you mean like performing a needless surgery on your own eye with a rusty knive, with the best possible result beeing not loosing eyesight? conscious utilization while no consciousness wouldnt be needed if one would just stop the pointless struggle.

Interestingly, I have no problems, no struggle with Windows, at all. Responsive, stable and works like it should. Reason is, I know exactly what I'm doing, when downloading-installing or clicking on something or typing stuff into command prompt. As simple as that. OS cannot be blamed for user errors and ignorace.

One could say a good OS is one where the user cannot make mistakes (executables only obtainable through regulated appstore, etc.), but I'd disagree.

i agree. luckily there is no such OS on computers ( ".exe equivalents" as in executeables that you can download and install programs with are .dmg for os-x and .deb for most linux distros)

I haven't used Chrome OS, but doesn't it keeps the users from executing pretty much anything but the browser in which everything runs?

then dont feel adressed. OP clearly stated tho that he has a virusscanner and anti spybot running, so he may not be on the more nerdy side of the userbase. i'm sure you would agree that the vast majority of windows users are so casual that they just keep their computers running with multiple active anti breakdown measures like the ones mentioned above, until after some time they "format c:" to start with the "sinking ship" game all over again.

i made my mother buy an imac and installed linux on my girlfriends pc, just because those are way more userfriendly OS's and i was getting tired of constantly working on their breaking systems. those (especially linux) let you do all you want if you are capable off, but dont punch you in the face if you are not.

and even if you are so much into windows that you can keep it stable and clean (i would say i am myself) you cannot keep it from getting various potential memory hogs and eventual malware just by design. (hardware drivers, directx, flash.. some of them with their own bloated ui if you want it or not).

"/kick all" usually gets rid of the bots.

They often /reconnect :/