
The Startup panel displays all the apps installed on your machine. Select Settings (cog icon) and click Apps.Here’s how to change startup apps on a PC: You can root out the bad stuff for your health or, rather, your computer’s health. Think of these programs as ingredient lists on the side of a food package. They let you look over every app on your computer. That’s why heading to Task Manager on a PC or Login Items on a Mac is helpful. They’re designed to disappear, so you don’t notice them, but they might accidentally show themselves in this way since they need to load. If a window briefly appears before flicking out of existence, that’s a sign that a spyware program is loading itself. Let’s say you forbid all apps from opening upon startup. You may think, “Maybe I accidentally clicked on it?” or “It could be a bug.” Don’t give any strange behavior the benefit of the doubt. For example, if an app launches itself out of the blue, don’t write it off. Be on the lookout for programs that start randomlyĪlways be on the lookout for strange activities. RELATED: Sneaky new malware avoids detection – How to check your computer 2. In that case, here’s another way to make sure no one is spying on you. Maybe you checked the Task Manager or Activity Monitor and didn’t find anything. If you see an app that uses too many resources, look it up, reset it and see if your performance decreases. Then, type Activity Monitor and press Enter. Just hit Command + Spacebar to open Spotlight Search. Mac users: Follow these stepsĬheck the Activity Monitor to see the processes your computer is running. If you notice performance decrease again, you just found your spyware app. If you don’t recognize the name, do some research to see if it’s a legitimate app. You might see a program that uses almost 100% of your CPU. Here you’ll see how many central processing units each program uses.

Just hit CTRL + SHIFT + ESC to open the Processes tab. PC users: Follow these stepsĬheck the Task Manager to see the processes your computer is running. Your computer will start working overtime to handle these unwanted programs, which means your device may begin to heat up. It’s designed to run your system dry, which means your programs can start to lag. Malware tends to use up a lot of resources.

Sure, maybe the slowdown is due to an innocuous reason like clutter. If it suddenly slows down, try to investigate the issue. Checking your speed is an easy way to sniff out spywareĪ sluggish computer is a dead giveaway that someone’s hitching a ride on your system. You can look over the list of apps and see which ones are slowing things down. They give you an overview of all the apps running on your device.

You should check your Task Manager if you’re on a PC or your Activity Monitor if you’re on a Mac.
