Firefox and other programs slow to launch

I am running WinXP Pro on a 2.3 Ghz P4 processor with 512 M Ram.
My problem is this:

Every time I click a launch icon in the quicklaunch bar or even when I select the item from the star menu, it takes a MINIMUM of 90 seconds to respond and show the program splash screen or start the program.

NOTE that this only occurs with BROWSERS and P2P programs. I have NS 7.1 installed as well as FF 1.5.0.1. I also have Limewire 4.10.

Could there be some sort of conflict here or is there a fix to this problem?

I have tried uninstalling NS and it didn't help. I previously had tried using NS 8.0, but that is the WORST BROWSER ever - with NO WAY to use bookmarks and no customization... I also had attempted to use Mozilla but that browser took a MINIMUM of 3 minutes to launch!

Anyone have some tips for me or even a full-on solution?

--Xoandre

 

Check for spyware and viruses before you do anything else.

 

already done... I have McAffee Virusscan Enterprise... I also have AdAware,.. I run them twice a day because I have DSL

--Xoandre

 

Have you done some housekeeping? Try CCleaner:

http://majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4191

Removes all the unnecassary crud (not spyware/adware/viruses) fast, free and can make significant differences. Also when was your last defrag conducted?

Another thing to consider is to open your taskmanager when using your apps and note where memory is being distributed.

 

I used CCcleaner and all of those tools listed in safe mode and it has slightly improved the load times... my PC does start up a tiny bit faster as well... I defragged a few days ago and always check my task manager... I have tried to eliminate any NON-essential stuff from running by using both the msconfig and services.msc

I will keep trying. Thank you...

 

Not just other programs but other programs accessing internet. Check how you connect, router, firewall and what else you might be running. And event viewer.

If you have been tweaking away with programs like TCP optimizer http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php then try "Restore Windows Default settings" might be best feature If all goes wrong may be try this "repair" tool http://www.xp-smoker.com/freeware.html - consider that last option, just before you blow up.

Could be spyware as said. Those sticky posts in Spyware forum list many programs for a reason. Have to at least doublecheck. May be you end up posting both here, in Spyware and in Networking forum. Hard to say what problem is.

 

Okay you seem quite adept at using your sys so here are some tweaking guides but use with caution and ONLY after you have made a complete sys backup:

http://www.tweakhound.com/xp/xptweaks/supertweaks1.htm
sepcifically to free up sys resources!

and from; langa.com:
http://www.informationweek.com/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=12803122&pgno=1

http://www.informationweek.com/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=17500569&pgno=1

I remove any responsibility for any consequences from following advice in these links. With that out of the way, I cut and paste these threads into a word doc and highlighted any changes I made (normally one at a time and test sys afterwards) that way if sys seems even more impaired I can reverse the steps (haven't had to yet). These can make subtle differences.