Spyware issues?

I've had a bunch of trouble with my PC (Dell OptiPlex GX520, gently used -- working fine 8 months ago, gradually slowing down and hanging up) recently. It's running Win 7 if that matters, and I use Chrome as my browser. I installed a bunch of Windows updates that somehow hadn't been run, and that helped a LOT, so that it seems to be running much better, much faster like it's supposed to be. (OneNote was hanging up constantly and now seems to be responding better, etc.)

I have the free versions of SpywareTerminator, Avast, and MalwareBytes installed, and they have all updated and scanned recently. They quarantined the couple of things they found. My problem is SpywareTerminator. It keeps finding a bunch of stuff, affiliate tracking cookies and such. It found a bunch and removed them yesterday, and it's found more today. I haven't even used the machine much in the past day.

I'm glad it's finding and removing stuff, but what I'd really like to know is how I can prevent those in the first place. One of the Windows updates was a security thing; I don't know if that will help or not.

If you have any suggestions for me, I'd really appreciate them. I don't know a lot about computers, but you have all been very helpful in the past. Thanks in advance!

Wife of Sam1911

 

Thank you! I am going to try the suggestions in that post and see if it helps to stop things. Much appreciated!