Programs not responding...need help please

I know nothing about computers. I have XP home. Several programs such as Photofiltre, Firefox, will stop responding. I close off the programs and then recieve a message to either send the info or not. I usually don't send because I get so many of them.

I have run Avast, Registry repair and Spybot. Nothing is showing except for a few deleted registries. I have uninstalled Photofiltre and firefox and reinstalled them both.

The programs, especially Photofiltre, still stop responding. I installed another photo editor program and it would stop responding also.

I ran a program to check AIM files for viruses and trojans.

I have deleted extra junk files such as photos and music files that the kids put on. I also cleaned out history, cache, cookies and stored passwords.

Not sure what else to do or what else to try. Any suggestions?

 

I'm bumping this back up because I have a similar situation going on in a relatives PC, except she's using XP pro. (there might be an issue with CODECs. Not sure)

Any ideas anybody?