Thanks guys for the explanation.
I currently have XP home SP2 and recently upgraded to 1GB RAM and i
thought
i might see some improvement, i do have a brand new laptop, but i didnt
see
any significant speed. as a matter of fact, i noticed that on startup, the
desktop appears and it is taking couple more seconds then before for the
icons and taskbar to appear. Not sure why this is happening. when i do
press
alt+ctrl+del i see svchost.exe is using he most mem usage.
i also have the latest mcafee virusscan.
I'm not saying that's the problem you have but, it takes more than one
anti-malware app to deal with malware. Particularly with respect to non
viral malware, you need to run a couple of the anti-malware programs in safe
mode. Good programs for this are Adaware SE Personal, Spybot S&D, and
Windows Defender. All are free.
One cause for the slowness you're seeing could be the McAfee products. The
large security suites like McAfee and Norton are resource hogs, and can
cause problems at some point.
There are some good free or low cost alternatives that are much less
resource heavy.
AV programs: AVG, Avast, CA eTrust, Anti-Vir, Nod32
Firewall: Sunbelt Software's Kerio Personal Firewall, Zone Alarm, Comodo
Personal Firewall.
Whether adding more ram will speed up the computer depends on what apps you
run and how much the page file is used. If it is used extensively then
adding RAM will help because this reduces page file size. For many 512 MB
is plenty and going to 1GB won't improve things, but for others running
certain apps they see better performance with 1 or 2 GB.
Here is an article on Virtual Memory in XP and setting the page file. There
is a link to a small utility you can run to monitor page file usage.
Virtual Memory in Windows XP
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm
Malware Removal
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware
THE PARASITE FIGHT
Finding, Removing & Protecting Yourself From Scumware
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm
Richard Harper’s Guide to Cleaning Pests
http://rgharper.mvps.org/cleanit.htm
Slow Computer
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/slowcom.htm