I have a WIN XP, 2.0 GHz P4, 512 MB RAM, 80 GB HDD which was working fine. Now the CPU has become very slow. I have defragmented, scaned for viruses, emptied cache and recycle bin. I run NAV and am uptodate with latest protection. But it continues to get slower - as if some bug were slowing it down every time I press a key. What can I do? Many thanks.

What processes are maxing out the CPU?

task manager / Processes / click on CPU header

Thanks for the response. But how do I find out to respond to you? Meaning what do I open to get to what you have asked for?

Do a "Control+Alt+Del" and then click on the "Task Manager" button.

That works with XP right? Never used it, so am guessing.

System Idle Process is currently taking between 98 to 99 % (memory usage is 20k). Other (big) memory usages are: iexplore.exe - 25 MB, SVCHOST.EXE - 20 MB, explore.exe - 19 MB, ccApp.exe - 13 MB etc.

System Idle Process - means that nothing else is using the processor, ie if it is at 98% - then your processor usage is only 2%

25MB of RAM is about the minimum most main applications run - so nothing seens amis there.

have you tried running a spyware remover - such as AdAware?

Thanks Drnoble. I have now installed and run AdAware. The PC is a bit better, but not the greased lightening it was (more grease?). This is a Dell machine, and the on-line help is pretty useless (and I believe that theirs is amoungst the best. God help the others!).

Welcome to the world of the Windows Registry.
Here you will notice, that every time you install new software, the registry gets bigger. And every time you remove software, it doesn't get much smaller.

If the performance is really bugging you, you may want to try restoring your system back to it's original settings. Not forgetting to back up everything you need first.

We love you Uncle Bill!

I use RegCleaner 4.3 for removing some registry crap. Removing registry keys though is a different ball game, tad over my knowledge.

Cheers Isaac. I just installed and used RegCleaner. Seems to work.

I was thinking of trying this (can't hurt) but when I looked in google, I found RegClean and RegCleaner...wanted to double-check as to which one to use.

i have regclean...tis ok :)

Well, apparently it can hurt - it messes up many of your settings (it did mine) but I was desperate enough to try anything (provided it was standing up with my legs together). So I used RegCleaner. It worked, but I had to reset some settings - no biggie.

I might be wrong, but you can physically remove some registry keys safely by start/run/type regedit and if the key is labelled with softwares name it's safe to delete. Trouble I found is that some software registry keys are not labelled as such, so even after you remove proggie registry key is still there and clogging it up. I do this with a lot of trial progs so I can keep using them.

I know that it is a bit of a drastic solution, but it really is good to do a fresh install of Windows every 6 months or so. You CAN try to keep your registry clean, try to uninstall every single little bit of software you test out, try to monitor spyware etc etc, but it's a ball-breaking task.

If you've got your data, programs, and Operating System set up in a logical way, you can reinstall Windows without causing too much hassle. It's not a 10 minute job, but it's do-able.

The speed increase you get from doing that is always impressive, and it's nice to go back to a vanilla setup sometimes, when you've really been fucking around with your PC.

If I were to re-install Windows, would I delete my entire hardrive? Would I delete all my files? What about things like Outlook Express and my mail settings (all these long string of numbers)? (This was all set up by someone else - thus my concern/query).

microsoft sez you can reinstall windows without formatting ur HD, but that's bullshit..if you dont format, your new windows copy is just as bad as your previous, and all your previously installed programs are useless, cause of regisrty problems...
and what you said about your system idle process, when you run a pc with those type of specs, you only should have like 4% CPU usage, but you got 98%!! That means your pc is pumpin the processor to its max all the time!
To stop this, go to the "processes" tab in the CTRL+ALT+DEL menu, and stop the process Explorer.exe. then either wait a few secs for ur explorer to restart, and it should be better... if not, hit >File>Run>type explorer

geez, long post!

system idle running at 98% is not bad at all, its pretty good, means very little is being used elsewhere.
for registry cleaning etc, try a copy of Ashampoo winoptimizer suite, cleans everything from internet files, to registry, and works very well.