too much in statup, and just generally slow

hello,
my old faithful laptop is running pretty slow, and there's way too many things starting at start up.

also sometimes I'll click on a folder, and the screen will go blank or disappear for a minute.

when I shut down I get a message WMS Idle is not responding

on boot up:
HP Digital imaging monitor has encourntered a problem
skype update required
java update available

also, don't need the weather channel either.

Thanks,
Elisa

 

Thanks for your reply.
It's windows xp

I loaded winpatrol and looked a the startup items, but I don't know what most of them are...

 

Hi my friend , you could take off all boxes except for antivirus programme :wave

 

You really should keep java updated and also update Skype if you are using it, or otherwise uninstall Skype. Security vulnerabilities in outdated versions of Java, Flash, Skype, Adobe Reader etc are a malware magnet.