My computer lags bigtime

Okay, maybe it doesn't lag bigtime, but it does lag. My computer, when I bought it, ran perfectly, no lag whatsoever. Now, about a year later, its starting to lag a little. I want to nip this in the bud before it becomes a bigger problem. And, no it wasn't just one incident of lag; its been doing this for a good month now. Does anyone know what I can do to stop this problem?

Computer Specs:
Vista Home Basic
160 GB SATA HDD
250 GB External HDD
1 GB DDR2 RAM
CA Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware
ECS 945GCT-M3 motherboard
Intel Celeron 440 @ 2GHz

NOTE: I didn't know where this issue would fall, so I just stuck it in "Hardware" since that's what I think is the problem, but I'm not sure.

 

There is many thangs you can do to make your pc faster.

I would run CCleaner, IoBit smart defrag and iobit advanced system care to clean up your pc. Those programs should clean up your pc and make it run much faster. You may also want to check if you have to many start up programs or malware running on your system slowing it down.

 

May also want to look at http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=106650

 

I agree start with CCleaner Slim 2.25.1025 and add to trash options then run that.

When is it lagging? Only while your on the net or during normal system operation as well?
How are you connected to the net? (wireless, adsl cable, shared router?) you may need to some some "ping test", etc.

Try and be a bit more specific with when and how the system is lagging.

 

lagging during internet surfing is the biggest problem, but it also takes forever to boot and sometimes opening a program (like Google Chrome) takes forever

 

Did you try and clean your pc up with the thread link?