Slightly complicated computer help

Factual Questions
1

Hey guys I tried doing the google thing but didn’t get the info I was looking for.

Recently my computer has become extremely slow. It’s a 2.2ghz and performs IMO like my old 1.3 now! I defraged it, and then ran my antivirus and thought it would do something but it did nothing.

What programs can I shut down when just browsing the internet to improve my computers speed? Or is there something else that could be going wrong with my computer to cause it to lag so much? We just had a slight heatwave here and could that have done something to it??

When I push ctrl-alt-del and go to “processes” here is all that is running.
It’s in order from most memory usage to least.
The “me” and “system” is what the “username” of the program is.

IEXPLORE.exe me
svchost.exe system
explorer.exe me
webscanxe.exe system
vshwin.exe "
vsmon.exe "
mcshield.exe "
qttask.exe me
spoolsv.exe system
taskmrg.exe me
precisiontime.exe "
datemanager.exe "
svchost.exe system
msmsgs.exe me
svchost.exe local service
svchost.exe network service
vsstat.exe system
csrss.exe system
wuauclt.exe me
avsynmrg.exe system
avconsol.exe system
dpps2.exe me
rulaunch.exe me
services.exe system
cmgrdian.exe me
smtray.exe me
zonealarm.exe "
alogserv.exe "
lsass.exe system
nvsvc32.exe "
winlogon.exe "
smss.exe "
system "
system idle process "

NOTE I am unplugging my internet from the wall and I’m going to check back this thread on my friend’s computer because I don’t know if any of those programs are gateways to get into my computer or anything. Please warn me if they are!

2

Just off the top of my head, these two programs are spyware. There may be more, try running Ad-Aware or Spybot first thing.

3

I don’t see any obvious viruses or trojans, but I do see a lot of unnecessary applications and what appears to be spyware. First of all, disable any virus scanners you have running. Virus scanners running in the background will seriously reduce your system’s performance, and can cause problems. I would suggest that you just scan your computer regularly and not leave a scanner running all the time. Second, look at the icons in your system tray (bottom right corner of the screen, you may need to click the < button to see all of them) and right click and exit any you don’t need running. Finally, download Ad-Aware and remove any spyware that has been installed on your system.

On a freshly booted system with no background applications, the only processes that should appear in task manager are:

taskmgr.exe
explorer.exe
lsass.exe
crss.exe
winlogon.exe
services.exe
svchost.exe (several instances)
system
system idle process

Note that additional processes may be part of drivers for hardware devices. For example, I have EM_EXEC.EXE that handles the scroll wheel and other special buttons for my Logitech mouse, and ACMonitor_X83.exe for my Lexmark X83 Printer.

4

precisiontime and datemanager are both spyware.

wuauclt is a possible trojan.

webscanxe is suspicious - there’s no hits for it on Google.

rulaunch - buggy auto-updater for McAfee antivirus. Known for causing crashes.

Beyond that, we also know that you have an nVidia video board, the “Don’t Panic” popup stopper.

I did come across quite a few references that McAfee Antivirus is something of a train wreck, (Buggy, crash-prone, erratic, doesnt’ do what it said it did, and so on) and that you’d be much better off with Norton Antivirus.