Ahmedamin Dec 31, 2004   4:10 AM GMT

agree to everything said in the first reply. additionally, I recommend using spysweeper which is by webroot.com it is the best by far howevery you need to buy for $20 or so. also you could have a driver conflict. in case you added any devices lateley you may want to troubleshoot it in case it the first suggestion does not help. Try spysweeper trial as well.

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Habiru Dec 31, 2004   8:43 AM GMT

Hi, Is your virus scanner up to date? Have you let your subscription lapse? Do you use internet explorer and visit sites you could download spyware from? Do you know what spyware is? Go here and download the lastest version of Counterspy. http://www.sunbelt-software.com/product.cfm?id=410 Its is free to use for 30 days and it will unlike most of its competitors remove the spyware from your computer without forcing you to pay first.Run Counterspy at least twice. If it finds spyware each time, run it until it finds nothing more. Make sure you update it before running the scan. You can also install HiJack This, Spybot Search and Destroy and the free edition of Ad Aware. This should remove all the spyware from your computer. Go here http://castlecops.com/ with your Hi Jack log if you are clueless on what to do with it. Run HiJack this when finished all other scans. Install Firefox and some extensions and quit using IE for browsing the net. If your antivirus is out of date, get NOD32. It has not missed a virus in the wild ever. It will also not impinge on your system resources like most popular AV products. Next, find a copy of WinPatrol http://www.winpatrol.com/ and install it. Read the readme file so you know what it does. It is there to help you decide about what you let run on your computer from here on in. If you are a newbie, get yourself McAfee firewall and install it. This should complete locking down and securing your computer after removing all the malware. If you have a good understanding of computer security, get Zone Alarm Pro.

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Poppaman Dec 31, 2004   8:58 AM GMT

In essence, I agree with what habiru said - I differ only in what products to use... Hijack this is a very powerful utility: stick to Webroot, Spybot and adaware unless you are comfortable "mucking around" with windows... Any good anti-virus should work - some are better than others. I use Symantec, others use McAfee or Trend Micro -whatever you have access to... If no A/V is installed, try NOD32 (small fast and efficient - not as fast on updates at times) or Panda Antivirus. As far as a firewall is concerned, the best one on the market (ie: best free firewall) is Sygate. Think of Zone Alarm, Norton, Macafee. Tiny, BlackIce as well equipped Hummers - rugged and capable. Think of Sygate as an M1A1 Abrams tank.... I have tested all the products mentioned above personally and in a lab setting and in an enterprise environment. Your results may vary. Offer not valid where restricted.....

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Timallard Dec 31, 2004   11:02 AM GMT

Another thing that may affect this is paging, and, I would say the memory is too small in relation to what most people run so this would force more paging as the machine fills with open programs and that all will be paged when you shut down and boot; also, check background services and eliminate those you don't need. And, you may want a faster chip. Depends ... I would suggest adding 512mb of memory, partitioning the disc and put paging in the new partition.

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Habiru Dec 31, 2004   11:58 AM GMT

Ya, I deserve a big kick in the butt for forgetting about Panda Antivirus. Great product! In fact, if not for NOD32, Panda would be it. They have the absolute best customer service department in the world. They are the benchmark that all AV companies should be compared against in my opinion.

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BinooDas1234 Jan 1, 2005   3:04 AM GMT

I thank you all for your replies. This really helped me and I appreciate it. I wish you all a very happy and troublefree new year.

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Careid69 Jan 4, 2005   10:29 AM GMT

the virus and spyware comments are good ones... but there is a way to stop the OS from checking if there is new hardware every time it boots up.... i can't think of it at the moment and i have to run but i know it's a standarded setting you can look up. that should save you about half of the start up time. charlie

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BinooDas1234 Jan 5, 2005   3:41 AM GMT

Thanks a lot Charlie for putting up this topic. I used "bootvis" for the same which seems to be working the same way as you have said. But I don't know what is the best way to use "Bootvis" or How can I get the max from "bootvis". If you mean it for manual settings, then what are those? Any comments on this from anybody? Thanks

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Darkgudda Jan 7, 2005   1:50 PM GMT

Good Replies- personally I use the antivirus Avast at www.avast.com. This is a great antivirus due to once you install it checks your system when it restarts. I had it do this recently when I installed it into my new Windows XP sp2 machine and it caught the sasser virus and terminated it. I breezed through the other replies and if this has been stated before I apologized. Did you install sp2? If so then there is a known fact read it on about.com that the sasser virus gets attached on the download. It happened to me and my avast caught it. Also has your HDD been scanned and defraged recently sometimes we can forget things like that. Take care have a nice day.

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InfoSafety Feb 24, 2005   7:35 PM GMT

In addition to the above, it is essential to clean out the Windows and internet temporary files. A good product for doing this is Webroot Window Washer. If you set it to clear out all the tempory files you don't need, you can expect it to clear out over .25 GB. I have seen five times that amount. Good luck. Craig Herberg

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Timallard Feb 24, 2005   8:33 PM GMT

This is usually from adware ... in addition to those listed before microsoft now has a beta out that does a good job that's free.

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Rcmichelle Nov 18, 2010   3:06 AM GMT

SO sad, I want a program to solve my slow computer, now I'm trying tuneup360, waiting for the result.

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Chippy088 Nov 22, 2010   9:50 AM GMT

All the answers given here are worth trying. The key thing to remember is that we are always playing catchup with those virus writers, so keep the AV and firewall updated daily. I would suggest adding at least a 2 gig stick (if it will take it.) if you install the recommended security progs, as they will need at least 512mb for themselves. Then you need to think about the memory used by progs you will be running. I also rely on the ccleaner utility. It can be configured to clean out all the temp files left over from installations, and it has a good registry checker. I set it to run and terminate when done. It will clean up most things, and I run it on a daily basis, as I install and uninstall programs, to check them out. I was surprised the first time I ran the reg cleaner, there were so many incorrect/obsolete registry entries, left over by bad uninstallers not removing everything they had set up on installation.

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Featured Member: Rcmichelle - ITKE Community Blog Nov 23, 2010   6:32 AM GMT

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