It seems my lovable Dell laptop, Nessie, has become quite, quite sluggish of late. So sluggish, in fact, that I suspect foul play—some sort of bug or ad-software-thing or spyware or whatever the technical term is. In short, pests! Anyway, while I may have qualms about spraying DDT on humans, I certainly have no qualms about spraying it on my computer. Is there anything anyone can recommend? I tried googling around and found something called "AdAware", but I don't want to download something that will only make the problem worse, ala introducing rats into Australia.

And yes, I use Mozilla and all that. Yes, I'm considering getting a Mac when Nessie finally dies on me. Etc.