I am having trouble with slowing responding programs. Sometimes, the system stops thinking and seems to forget what it is trying to load. Obviously something is binding up my system. I am new to using XP and am wondering if this is common. Any suggestions for finding the culprit that is slowing down my system? I have gone through and cleaned up the system of useless programs that I don't use, but that didn't solve the problem. What do I do next?
The most common cause is low cpu resources and the main cause is spyware and adware that is dumped on systems by so called free programs. The main spyware loaded stuff is kazaa, real one player, limewire, bearshare, gator and a host of others.
Get hold of spybot to remove these nasty bits.
Try using kazaalite or purchase kazaa gold to avoid spayware.
As for real player buy the plus version.
for the rest just avoid them.
Other reasons for low resources is having too many legitimate programs running in the background. if you have more that 4-5 icons in the system tray (next to clock) then you are running too many.
There are many other things you can do to speed up your system such as defragging, uninstalling programs you never use. and making sure you have at least 25% of the hard drive free.
If you have been running a system for 12 months or more consider backing up data, reformatting and reinstalling windows and software. This should be done annually.
Great advise....I am also experiencing the same problem...i tried the product from lava...somehow the spyware is still active...i also have norton systemworks 2003...tried using it to delete the downloaded programs....what should i try now...? Any recommendations will be appreciated....thanks
AdAware has not been updated since Sept. Use Spybot instead.
As for protection I use AVG anti virus and Zone Alarm as my firewall. Both are free, regularly updated and do the job without compromising or crashing my system.