IE6 & OE is very slow.

After downloading & installing last weeks updates from Microsoft for WinXP HE SP2 I've noticed that Internet Explorer 6 & Outlook Express are very slow. Watching them run in Task Manager it reports "running.... not responding... running... not responding..." for several minuits until it has compleated loading. Zone Alarm system tray icon shows no activity through the connection durring the "not responding..." intervals. Firefox is running like a scalded dog. I use Norton AV, Ad-Aware, Spybot S&D, Zone Alarm, CCleaner, Window Washer, CleanMOCache, CleanCache, System Security Suite, CWShreader, HiJack This, Trend Micro free online external scan; all the latest versions & definations that report no problems. The overall speed of the machine is also good although Norton Systemworks loads & runs slowly. Any suggestions?

 

Any unsual entries in the Event Log ?
Been playing with services.msc and changed services from their default state ?

 

All is well! After researching a reoccuring error event id# 7023 in Administrative Tools/ Event Viewer/ System, I discivered that my WinXP Home Edition services was trying to access Appmgmt.dll that is only included in WinXP Professional. I disabled the service in Adminstrative Tools/ Services. IE6, OE, even Norton Systemworks are faster than I have ever seen them perform. Hmm... should I continue to use Firefox? I suppose I should if only for the security issues.

 

Try a BIOS update, I had the same issues on my PC because SP2 modifies your ACPI settings and can cause hardware devices to load incorrectly.