Ubuntu running really slow from downloads

[Pasty-Flawss]

Hey I've downloaded a lot of stuff recently (and i'm sure a lot of it was filled with spyware) and i'm now regretting it. My computer is running really slow.. Well its not really slow its just very low fps and when i move mouse over something it takes a few seconds to do what it should do when mouse rolls over it (highlight for example)

I had this problem in windows aswell but in windows it was easy to resolve this. All i had to do was open notepad type in something then shut down the computer. It would close all programs running in the background and then prompt me with Do you want to save changes? when i clicked cancel it aborted the shutdown but the hidden programs were still closed.

However when i try this in Ubuntu it prompts me with the Do you want to save changes? before it closes all the hidden programs and i was wondering if there was like a command line to kill all hidden programs apart from ubuntu. Or if there is any other tricks in ubuntu to do what i want.

Thanks

[rossjman1]

I don't think there is spyware for Linux. Appart from that I don't understand your question...

[bitninja]

I'm pretty sure this isn't from anything you've downloaded...there is next to no spyware/adware for any version of Linux. Try updating your system with the latest kernel, graphics drivers, etc.

[Pasty-Flawss]

I use wine and download a lot of EXE's could this be the problem?

[Pasty-Flawss]

It's probably not spyware. I only have 1gb of ram. Which is a lot for linux but I think since i've downloaded a lot of programs (a lot were EXEs) That they are all running in the background and it's using up all my memory causing me to lag. Was just wondering if there was a way to closes all running programs

[bitninja]

That shouldn't affect your Ubuntu running speed I wouldn't think...Wine is somewhat sandboxed/isolated I believe, and you should try updating everything, like I said.

[bitninja]

Execuatable applications from Windows don't run natively in Ubuntu...if there are any EXEs running in the "background" they are running in Wine, and you'll need to close Wine to close the programs...

[Pasty-Flawss]

That shouldn't affect your Ubuntu running speed I wouldn't think...Wine is somewhat sandboxed/isolated I believe, and you should try updating everything, like I said.

I'm pretty sure everything is updated. If there is no way to close all programs in background like there is in windows sorry for posting. Was a stupid question

[bitninja]

Well that's why it's called the absolute beginners talk forum.

[rossjman1]

If you boot your computer, it asks you which os you want to boot into. Select Ubuntu (recovery). It will run without GNOME, etc.