HELP! some things are becoming slow!

[paulspencer]

I'm running windows xp and I have a reasonably fast machine with plenty of memory, BUT lately some things have slowed down. eg. to open a file, I click browse to look through the folders and it takes 15 seconds to display the folders, or I load a program and it waits a similar amount of time before it starts loading! Or from my email program, I try to click a link to an attachment file (Outlook Express) or a website and the same thing happens. The computer isn't slow overall, but when another program has to be loaded, it is VERY slow.

Can anyone suggest what might be the cause and how I can fix things?

In the past I would have just re-formatted my hard drive and installed things from scratch. I would like to do this but there are so many automatic updates for XP, I don't want to lose them all!

Suggestions?

 

[Byteman]

1. Run a virus scan with updated definitions. AND run and online scan as well, http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp
http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/com/activescan_principal.htm

2. Install Ad-Aware (and the VX2 plug-in for it), update it's definitions. Install Spybot Search&Destroy, update it's definitions. Install CCleaner and also RegScrubXP (google them to find them).

3. Reboot to safemode (press F8 key repeatedly while booting up to get there), and run Ad-aware (Full system scan, not the Smart Scan), and Spybot, reboot to Safemode and run them again. Let them clean out anything they find.

4. Reboot normal and run CCleaner, (uncheck the boxes on the "issues" tab), then click "Analyze" and when it's done searching for junk click, "Run Cleaner" let it clean your junk. Run Regscrupxp and have it get rid of useless registry junk.

5. Reboot normal and report back...

 

[Sebouh]

Well if you have been using the same system for a while now, or you have been installing and uninstalling alot of applications the i think it's time for defragmenting your drive.

 

[Byteman]

Also, what are the specs of your computer?