ROFLMAO. 
Thanks, BobT.
Oh, the OP. Yes, more ram than 256K is one solution.
This is probably your problem.
I’m typing this on an 800 MHz PIII running XP with 128 MB of RAM and I think it’s a fast machine. I never notice any delays in any of the programs I have except for games (hence I’ve got a faster dedicated game machine) and a few electronic design packages that can bring even the most powerful computer you can buy to its knees. One of the reasons it is so fast, despite having a much slower CPU than the OP, is that I only have 20 processes running (my CPU usage is hovering around 1 or 2 percent). You get enough processes in there fighting for CPU time and resources and I don’t care how fast your machine is, it’s going to grind to a halt. Adding RAM only delays the inevitable.
This page will help you identify what is running and may give you some suggestions:
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm
The suggestions of previous posters along these lines are pretty good too. Spybot is a good start, but run Adaware too. Spybot and Adaware will both catch things that the other misses.
If you’ve managed to get that damn cool web browser hijack, just format the disk and start over. It’s much easier that way.
My computer has half that and runs fine.
My system runs AVG. The only time it has a noticable affect on performance is at 7 am when I have it scheduled to do a full system scan. Then, for about half an hour, it performs like it’s a hamster powered 286 (kinda like the SDMB server). If for some odd reason I’m actually up and doing something with the computer that early, I’ll just stop that scan and restart it when I’m done.
I would strongly not recommend running a system without some sort of anti-virus in this day and age.
Eek! That’s enough to be getting on with. You may find that Spybot hasn’t managed to successfully delete them all, so reboot and run all your spyware/antivirus scans again. Make sure your definitions are up to date before you do. Some malware is horribly difficult to remove - if you find a persistent offender that you can’t get rid of, then you can be sure someone else has had the same problem, and has posted a cure on some PC message board or other. Google what ails you if you’ve got a stubborn one. And then hope it hasn’t been monitoring your keystrokes for password and credit card information.
So far I’ve managed to avoid having XP installed on any of my machines, at work or home. This is a 860MHz P3 with an awkwardly sized 196MB RAM running Win 98. For most applications is runs just as fast as a 3GHz XP machine. But I could use more RAM for big graphics files, that’s for sure.
At the moment I’ve got 25 processes running, 2 windows (Firefox and Process Explorer), and my CPU is ticking along at 4%. About 0.5% of that is Norton Antivirus. I’m not familiar with the XP task manager (just NT and 2000), but Win 98 has nothing, so I find Process Explorer very useful, particularly as it tells you exactly how much CPU time each process is using. You’ll soon find what’s slowing things down.
I have had problems reinstalling Norton - it corrupted one time, and just wouldn’t be uninstalled and reinstalled again. Eventually I found this was due to the Norton uninstall routine not actually doing its job properly, and I found a special little application from the Symantec website to finish what it started, and it finally worked. I wasn’t impressed, especially as I had to redownload the 10MB definitions file on a dialup connection. Grrr! But as e_c_g says, it doesn’t slow down normal running noticably.
I’ll also echo the sentiment that it’s been sound advice from all so far, even though the advice has been quite varied. That illustrates a real weak point of the Windows platform, the fact that it requires so much preventative maintenance and extra security to run effectively for any reasonable period of time.
When you say that it’s slow, do you mean that it’s slow all the time, or only when you’re doing certain things on it? For example, if you feel that it’s slow when running computer games, you should look to the video card rather than how much memory or how fast the CPU is.
engineer_comp_geek The reason is more the processor then the ram for no anti virus program, while you have a 800 PIII w, 128 ram, I am using a K6/3 at 366 w/ 192 ram. I was running Avast AV till XP SP2 came out then it had to go.
Nonsense. Disable EVERYTHING in the startup group to see what happens. NOTHING is required to run the system, and while some are indeed “benign,” they also slow you down. Most startup routines are little stubs of programs that generate tiny icons (I’ll bet you don’t know what all those little icons are for, anyway) and take up CPU time and memory space. Their intention is to make the actual loading of their program faster when you need it, but at the expense of everything else slowing down a little. If they are needed, they will be loaded when needed.
The only things you want to return to your startup group after your test may be anti-virus routines so they are in place upon bootup. The 2nd candidate is automatic update handlers if you like those. But ditch Norton; it’s a memory and CPU hog. Try AVG From Grisoft.
If you find you actually use one of the startup icons, you can re-enable it in the startup group. Some will re-enable themselves, but beware – any one that refuses to let you disable it is a good candidate for malware or a virus. (That’s not a sure thing; some legitimate sound card managers refuse to be disabled.)
And no, contrary to popular myth, SYSTRAY is not needed in the startup group to display icons.
I boot with only two items enabled in the startup group; a firewall. I refuse to use anti-virus routines; they are too intrusive, so I ride bareback. Works fast & fine; lean & mean.
Overclock it! A lot!
(Don’t.)
I know what they’re all for, but I wouldn’t disable everything in there except for troubleshooting purposes. msconfig is designed to help you figure out what driver, system entry or startup item is causing problems on your PC; once you figure out what the problem is you’re supposed to fix it in another manner (like uninstalling, changing program settings to not start at boot, or as a last resort using regedit).
Nothing there is required to run your PC, but in spite of the tendancy of dancing desktop women and cursor changing crapware to create entries there, there’s plenty there that I wouldn’t want to remove.
(Scheduling agent, firewalls, KB891711, and my logitech mouse utility for example).
It’s also designed to control what loads at boot time (at least one-tab’s worth of msconfig is), and to provide an easy way to enable/disable such. Note that you are not REMOVING any programs by checking/unchecking at item in the startup group, just ENABLE or DISABLE -ing. You can always reverse the process.
And there’s probably a lot of junk, too. A typical new computer out of the box is loaded with 50-100 unnecessary startup items. As long as you know what you want/need, it’s your choice, your options. Is it required? Is it needed? Disable it and find out.