Okay, so you buy a computer and it's running great for a few months or so, then it starts to get slow and pop-ups start sprouting everywhere. "What happened?" you may ask yourself.

This is a common problem and I've seen it on every computer that I've looked at. There are way to prevent this from happening with regular maintenance and prevention. Below I'll list free programs that I use myself and you might find come in handy.

Firewall: Windows comes with its own firewall but I prefer something with a little more muscle. That's why I use the free version of ZoneAlarm. I admit it can be annoying sometimes to have the ZoneAlarm warning pop-up when it sees something is trying to access the internet, but with a simple click you can have the program save your preferences to allow the programs you want to go online and deny the ones you don't. This also helps prevent hackers from gaining access to your computer.

Anti-Virus: Something everyone who goes online regularly needs to have. AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition is what I use. It has a regularly updated database of virus definitions available for download. Virus' can cause a lot of damage to your machine, and even take it over without you even knowing.

Anti-Spyware: Again, everyone who goes online needs this program. I highly recommend having more then one Anti-spyware program. The one I recommend the most is Ad-Aware. Spyware is what causes all of those popups, so make sure you download this one.

System Optimizer: Now, there are tons of little files that just sit around your computer and do absolutely nothing. You obviously don't need these files taking up space on your hard drive. "How do I get rid of them you ask?" Try CCleaner. When I used this tool it cleaned up almost 2 gigabytes of space. This tool also has a Registry cleaning tool. If you don't know what can be deleted safely, you should avoid using this option because it can lead to some serious troubles.

System Defragment: What does this mean? Well, when you download a file or install it, it isn't saved as one big file, instead its broken up into pieces. This can slow your system down because it has to find the pieces. Windows has a program that will do this but Auslogics Disk Defrag 1.1.5 works much faster and is easier to use. This program made my computer 16% faster!