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You've probably got adware and spyware, Ewido, Ad-Aware SE Personal, and Spybot Search and Destroy will sort those out.

Make sure you have a good firewall.

Run Ccleaner to clear out the mess in the registry.

Defragment the hard drive from Start - programs - accessories - system tools - disc defragmenter and leave it to run.

Reduce the programs that load on startup to Windows and security software from Start - Run and type in msconfig. Click the Startp tab and untick anything you know you don't want.

Here's a list of free software thats all safe to download;

The Windows firewall doesn't stop malware on your pc from dialling out. Either of these firewalls are free for personal use and stop unwanted incoming and outgoing traffic. You choose which programs are allowed to access the internet. They are both fairly easy to use and updated regularly.

http://www.zonelabs.com/ Zone Alarm firewall

http://www.kerio.com/ Kerio firewall

Shields Up security site, check your firewall works

https://www.grc.com/

http://www.mozilla.com/ Firefox web browser

http://www.opera.com/ Opera web browser

Instal both these web browsers, turn off javascript on one and use that browser for vising unknown websites. They don't support Active X so thats one less way for problems to get on your pc.

Winpatrol is a handy utility that tracks cookies on your pc and stops unwanted changes to your startup folder.

http://www.winpatrol.com/

Spywareblaster works with Internet Explorer and Firefox. It won't uninstall spyware that is already on your pc, but it will prevent hijacks and other malicious changes to your browser.

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/

http://www.siteadvisor.com/ -Site Advisor warns about malware on sites you are about to visit.

http://www.avast.com/ - Avast Antivirus

http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/ - Trend Micro online virus guide

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ - Trend Micro PCillin online scan

http://www.ewido.net/ - Ewido anti trojan

Ad-Aware SE Personal anti adware

http://www.lavasoft.com/

Spybot Search and Destroy anti spyware

http://www.safer-networking.org/

http://spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm - The Spyware Warrior site identifies fake anti spyware programs.

http://www.bitdefender.com/ -BitDefender can be used as a second, on demand anti virus.

http://www.ccleaner.com/ Cr*pcleaner Registry cleaner and privacy tool

You can also download Microsofts free Windows Defender from the official Microsoft site, and the Malicious Software Removal Tool.

Remember to update and run all of you anti malware programs at least once a week.

If you reinstall the OS, you'll need to delete the partition first, then repartition. Before installing you'll have the option as to whether you want a 'quick' reformat or 'regular' reformat. I've tried both and the results were the same. Go with the quick formatting because you'll be waiting a lot less. After this go ahead with the OS installation.

For after care, you need a good program such as 'Window Washer'. This'll clean up a lot of junk you never knew existed after you've been on the Internet. Internet usage also fragments you hard drive (a lot). Steer clear of the Microsoft Defrag program, it's nothing more than a cheap bastardized version that they lease from Norton. I use O&O Defrag, it's one of (if not) the best on the market. Clean & defrag.

Friendly reminder, NEVER use more than one defragmentation program. If you try using both defrag programs, you'll be reinstalling your OS again in short order. If you use O&O, stick with it. Your system should run like a top.

You might also consider adding some extra RAM. You never stated your laptop model or specs.

Computer need regular maintenance to retain performance. you can do the following to help.

Defragment the hard disk. Windows comes with disk tools to do this or you can buy commercial packages. After a time files on the disk get fragmented and it takes longer to read and load into memory. by defragmenting regularly you can boost performance.

Close anything in the system tray you don't need. Memory is key if you don't have enough the memory caches to disk and disk is SLOW. So close anything you don't need and if that doesn't help perhaps you are running too many programs and need to buy more memory.

There are a thousand different tweaks that can be done, like setting process importance, but these two are the easiest and most effective.

Hi there

You could try doing a disk defragment. This done by going to the start menu > Progams > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter. Select the drive you wish to defragment and then click start. To ensure effectiveness of this procedure, do not run any applications while disk defragment is in progress. You say that your computer is taking forever to start up. This could be caused by a great number of programs starting up when your computer starts. Disable start up of programs you don;t use very often. This can be done by deleting the contents of the startup folder in the start menu. Applications sometimes have an option which disables them from starting up when your computer starts. Usually in the options menu, where there may be a tick box. If this box is ticked, untick the box by clicking on it.

You may have spyware on your computer, this can be removed using various applications which can be found online. See www.microsoft.com for further information on spyware removal downloads.

Hope this helps.

Scott

When was the last time you turned it off? If it has been on for a long time, the computer cna start to run slow from the use of RAM. Try shutting it off and then see if your computer isnt faster.

Also try using the task manager to shut down unnecesseary programs

also try buying more memory or RAM, from a local computer store (bestbuy, compusa, office depot)

Check what you have loading at startup.

You probably have several things loading that you don't need.

Not only will that cause the slow startup but will be using up resources that will slow down other applications, including the internet

Please ignore anyone that tells you to reformat

A friend had this problem which i was able to fix, what size is your ram, My friends was only 128, so when I added a 256 it now works like a dream, if it is this you can buy a ram stick from e-bay quite cheap less than £5.00 and it's very easy to fit, just check what ram you are running first.

might help if you posted what op system and some specs i.e ram cpu size hdrive size , have you checked for spyware or adware these little pests can if left on your system slow it down to a stop. if your using xp then click open task manager and check what processes are running might be a prog running in the background. hope this helps

run disk clean up and disk fragmenter from the start menu, all programs, accessories, system tools to frre up some space on you hard drive.

Buy more RAM (random Access Memory) so that you can run more programs at once or just a larger program quicker.

Delete all files you no longer want or need.

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