New user needs help

Hello board,

My name is David and this is my first time to this website Im not a "techie" by any means, Im 25 and use to hate computers but im starting to learn more as I go. I see alot of you users really know what you are talking about so maybe you can help me. Hmm...where to start, well, I have had my PC for a while ( Windows 2000 Pro Dell 1.0ghz 256RAM 40gig hard drive) And I just got connected to high speed internet. After talking to the shop where I baught my PC and my ISP I started to learn about all the adware, virus's and stuff that can hurt my PC. So I started to go out there and get software like Norton AntiVirus and other software, after reading some PC magazines and going to computer message boards like this, I was told that Norton as well as Mcafee are "software viruses" in-themselves because they attach to your computer like a cancer and its extreemly hard to remove. So on that advice I removed Norton the best I could and downloaded other software. Well after alot of installing/uninstalling looking for the right software I currently have the following:

AntiVirus Software : AVG 6.0 AntiVirus System (free version)
Firewall Software : Sygate Personal Firewall
Lavasoft Ad-Aware 6.0
SpyBot 1.3
Registry Mechanic 3.0
Pc Bug Doctor
Pest Patrol
Spyware blaster
System Mechanic 5 Pro
TrendMicro Housecall
HijackThis
Mozilla Firefox

Not really knowing what Im doing, Im starting to realize that I probably dont need all this software, So I want to post this message to experts who know all about this stuff and might be able to tell me what I should keep and what I should get rid of and why. I have called Dell and my ISP and called local PC stores and cant seem to get any real, unbias, straight help without selling me something or getting bogus help. Another problem Im facing is, Once I started to look around for software I thought I needed and installing/uninstalling stuff that didnt pan out I started to pick up trojans, rebate ads, and all this trash thats seems to be infecting my computer. My Internet Explorer Browser (I.E. 6.0) isnt loading properly anymore and some pages load with errors, some pages dont open at all and sometimes my homepage is changed. I clearly messed around wth my computer not knowing what im doing and messed alot of things up. So my last question I guess is what can I do to clean alot of this up and keep my computer clean for good. I obviously have some issues going on and didnt really know where to start. Im learning as I go and want to eventually know what im doing. Thank you for having the patience to read this posting and I appreciate any usefull feedback and assistance.

 

Hi David,
Welcome to MajorGeeks

Here is a thread that addresses a similar concern:
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=45686

Also note that you should be running Ad-Aware SE.

To clean up your mess, take a spin through this tutorial:
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

Let us know if you have any questions.

Best luck,
PP