My computer is running slower than usual. What can I do to fix this problem?

Thank you

K,

Good afternoon, usually a slow running PC is a sign of a virus. I'm not experienced on Vista but if you can do a Ctrl>Alt>Delete and pull up the tasks monitor. You want the screen that shows the CUP % of Busy. If it is in the 90 or higher percent, switch to active applications and see what application or TSR is hogging the CPU's time.

Also, must security packages will allow you to load off the CD. To do this go into the PC's Setup and select the DVD or CD drive listed than put the CD into the drive and run a scan of the PC. If that doesn't work, set yourself back to the PC' harddisk and reboot again. Get a current update of the worms, virus' and Trojan horses and scan your PC several times.

Time to do some serious maintenance on your machine:

Here's my usual C&P for cases like this:


When was the last time you did some serious maintenance on your system ?

System maintenance includes:
Defrag
FULL patching
Virus scanning
Spyware scanning
removal of rubish files

Defrag is an inbuilt function in XP.
Open My Computer > Right click C: > Tools Tab and its there.

To make sure everything is running fine run both anti virus and anti spyware apps in normal AND safe modes. (make sure that they are updated first ! ;)) (AVG (http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1) is good and free AV)
(A couple of good removal tools are Spybot (http://www.safer-networking.org/) and Adaware (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/))

ALso an on line virus and spyware scanner is Trend Housecall (http://housecall.trendmicro.com/)

Just a note: actively running two AV's on one machine can cause problems.
So if you are thinking about it make sure your current one is disabled first.
Same thing applies to online scanners as well.

Removal of junk files is easy with CCleaner (http://www.ccleaner.com) a free app that does exactly what

If all this fails then a repair install may be in order:

Here's (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/tips/doug92.mspx) the official Micro$oft way of doing it,
and Here's (http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=138) one with screen shots.

Basically this installs windows over the top of your current setup.
So you don't loose any information you already have.

This lot should resolve your issue.