This post is going to go out of date faster than the shoes I bought at the weekend because it deals with PCs and processors - partly. I've got a number of PCs here, with varying setups. One thing I've noticed is that with the newer dual core PCs there's a huge difference in PC performance when running a spyware (or virus) scan.

To be perfectly honest, although you're supposed to be able to run a scan on a PC and work on it at the same time, realistically your PC is going to chug along like your granny unless you've got a dual core processor (or above).

But on my desktop, for example, I've got the old style processor and running a spyware scan and trying to run other applications at the same time just doesn't work. But on my laptop, which is a dual core Vista PC, I can run a spyware scan and any other programs easily at the same time.

If your PC isn't the latest model then you've really got two choices here.