XP Performance in the "mud"

[MikeD]

My wife downloaded a free iTune and the iTune software
was downloaded along with QuickTime. Well, long story
short, now my computer takes a long time to shut down,
start up, start an app. I uninstalled iTunes and
QuickTime, but no change. I restored the system state to
a checkpoint prior her downloading the iTune. I notice,
using task manager, that when any app or utility such as
Word, Photoshop, OutLookExpress, etc. is started that the
System CPU usage jumps to almost 100% until the app has
started (takes longer than before). Then it drops down
to practically 0 when the program has loaded. Also, once
I'm on the net or using a program, the performance is
normal. The problem is just when I start the computer or
a program.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

[Rich Barry]

Mike, check for spyware, trojans and adware. You can use these sites.
Try them all
The last one does a great job but you will have to remove the parasites
manually.

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

http://safespy.net/Spyware_Hunter.htm

http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/

http://spybot-spyware.com/trojan.htm

http://www.spysweeper.com/

http://www.kephyr.com/spywarescanner/

 

[Mike]

Thanks for the suggestions Rick. I run Spybot and Norton
anti-virus on a regular basis and don't have any spy apps
or viruses. I did download Ad-Ware 6.0 and removed a
bunch of cookies and a couple of other things, but no
improvement. The problem seems like something is
executing every time I launch an App or restart my PC and
is causing the system usage to go to 100% which,in turn,
causes the APP to take a while to start. As I mentioned
in my original message, once things load, they work
normally (no slow down, etc.) I'm running XP on a
Pentium 4 2.4 GHz, 1 GB of RAM and 2 150 GB hard drives.
I keep the system files, programs, data, and backups on
different partitions. I've never had any problems with
the set up. It is fast and handles graphics and number
crunching extremely well. Oh, I used Restore to go back
prior to the start of the problem with no change.

Any other thoughts???

Mike

 

[Rich Barry]

Mike, go to C:\Windows\Prefetch Folder and clean it out. Since you have
a Intel System I remember
something about the Intel Application Accelerator causing problems. Check
with Intel's website.