HOUSTON -- Is your computer kind of slow these days? NBC News reports that 83 percent of home computer users are unaware that spyware has been downloaded onto their hard drive.

"Spyware is an ever-growing threat. With it, spyware can track where you're going and what you're doing," Rob Gross, a representative with Geeks On Call, said.

Gross recommends home computer users download a free anti-spyware program, like Ad-Aware or Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware.

Second, Gross suggests downloading an anti-virus program to guard against the devastating effects of a virus. Some popular programs include McAfee and Norton.

Third, computer users should delete their Internet history to ensure their computer is performing at its maximum potential. To do this, open an Internet Explorer window, go under Tools and click on Internet options. Once there, look for the Delete Files button.

The fourth step is to also delete cookies stored on the computer. Follow the same process as deleting files to delete cookies.

The final step is to defragment the hard drive.

"What defragmenting is going to do is ... put all those fragmented files closer together that way the hard drive is not going to have that hard of a time and take as long to find those bits to show you those files."

To defragment the hard drive, double-click on the My Computer icon on your desktop. Right click on the Local Disk (most often the C: drive) and left-click on properties. Once there, click on the Tools tab and hit the Defrag Now button.

By defragmenting the hard drive, the computer's speed should increase and will also ensure that nothing dangerous or harmful is on the computer.