First, you open the web browser. The first page it opens to is a strange page about a computer cleaner that’s “guaranteed to make your computer run 10X faster!!”. What an odd choice for a homepage.

As you navigate the web, you notice lots of ads popping up all over the place. There are so many popping up on your screen that it’s actually slowing down the webpage and increasing page load times.

It’s clear this computer has adware. Adware is unwanted software designed to throw advertisements on your screen. While not overly malicious on the surface, sometimes adware can come bundled with other, more harmful malware.

With enough adware on your machine, this could become a real performance issue.