I finally took Tarun's advice and gave Ewido a try. It found 483 tracking cookies on my computer!

This despite the fact I have MSAS, AdAware, Spybot S&D, and SpywareBlaster, and use CCleaner to clear cookies after every browsing session. The other users had more cookies than I did, but I still had a lot.

No wonder the Internet seemed a little laggy. 483. I'm in shock.

Oh, so it was Tarun who introduced it to us.

It was recommended to me, and it's in the Anti-Malware packages. It works extremely well.

First time I used Ewido was back in May to solve this problem. I still use their online scans when I feel the need.

http://www.ccleaner.com/index.php?showtopic=1153&hl=

Kudos to you, Tarun.

I forgot to mention WinPatrol, another program that has some cookie-blocking, also not doing the job. Apparently the writers of tracking cookies have gotten a lot more sophisticated, and these older programs aren't keeping up. There was nothing else besides cookies, at least, but that's an awful lot of crap to have dragging down your system.

I think ewido is a keeper, some of these others, though...