Are there things that an average user or even a more experienced computer user can do themselves to fix simple problems with their system?

Surprisingly there are several things that you can do to help speed up and even diagnose or troubleshoot your way through many common problems completely on your own without the help of a professional like me.

The reason I offer this advice is because I would personally rather have you fix these common problems. It will save you money.

For virus and spyware issues the first thing you should do is reboot your system in safe mode (be sure to specify safe mode with networking). If you are not sure how to boot your system in safe mode, use the following process:

From a cold boot or after a system restart, press your F8 key repeatedly while the system is booting up. You may have to tap the key in succession for several seconds during the entire boot up sequence to insure that the bios detects the keystroke successfully.

You should be presented with a black screen with several options one of which will be: 'Safe Mode With Networking'.

Use your arrow keys to highlight the selection and then press enter/return.

You should see many messages scroll down the screen as the libraries are loaded.

Be patient this process can take a few minutes.

You may be warned that you are in safe mode which is fine. Once you have reached the desktop check to see if you can bring up an internet explorer.

If you can and still do have access to the internet make sure that your browser is not being redirected through any proxy servers (this is a tactic that some virus/spyware programs use to send you to their sites).

1. From the internet explorer tools menu select 'Internet Options'.
2. Using the tabs in the Internet Options dialog box select 'Connections'.
3. On the Connections menu press the button labeled 'LAN setting'.
4. Make sure that none of the boxes on this menu are selected.
5. Press OK twice to return to the Internet Explorer.

Now in cases where you have lost your Internet Access this is a technique that can restore access many times.

1. Click on Start.
2. Type 'msconfig' into the search box.
3. You should see 'msconfig.exe' appear at the top of the search dialog box.
4. Using your mouse click on 'msconfig.exe'.
5. The system configuration utility should start and a dialog box should appear on your screen.
6. Using the tabs at the top of the dialog box select 'Startup'.
7. Press the button labeled 'Disable all'.
8. Press 'Apply' and then 'OK'.

Now reboot your computer and in many cases your internet connection will have been restored and you can safely download a virus/spyware scanning application to remove whatever may have been causing your problems.