Trying to figure out why my computer is running slowly

I've gone through the malware forums and done a lot of cleaning of my hard drive. I replaced AVG with avast, I replaced SG with COMODO BOClean, and I replaced ZoneLab with Online Armor. I've got SpywareGuard and Spybot S&D doing their immunization thing.

I've run CCleaner, MRU-Blaster, RegCleaner, and AusLogics Disk Defrag and Registry Defrag. I've updated through Dell and I've updated windows (though I am unable to update Office, I don't have the CDs for those). My desktop is not cluttered and I have 37 programs running right now when all the iTunes helper files are not running and my external is not plugged in. I've got at least two questionable programs running... MediaAgent.exe and mDNSResponder.exe.

I am running Windows XP Home Edition SP3, with a Pentium 4 CPU 2.40GHz and 1.00GB of RAM on a DELL Laptop. I also have a regular DSL connection.

Should I expect to be able to watch videos online without lag or is my system too limited? Should I expect a little slowness on this computer. The CPU is regularly hitting 100% when I start running a few programs, so the issue is the CPU, not the RAM. I feel pretty frustrated. Am I expecting too much?

 

I would run a few online scanners as an extra precaution even though the 2 files you mentioned are not necessarily suspicious. This here is Kasperskys - go for a full scan every time. And this here is ESET NOD32. Then we have this relatively new service from Microsoft, - the free Windows Live OneCare safety scanner. It can do quite a few things that the first ones can't. So visit that one also and OK all it's suggestions. Link here. Finally install and run the free Secunia PSI RC3 and update everything else according to it's suggestions. Your video problems could be caused by a number of programs but Secunia should check that for you. Link here.

 

To find out what's eating your CPU: use Task Manager - Ctrl+Alt+Del.

Also some programs have bugs that causes this CPU problem. Windows Live Photo Gallery is an example. This here is a Microsoft article about some of the Windows Live Photo Gallery problems - some tweaks there as well. We had a thread about it yesterday - link here. Just in case you have this program installed.

 

I haven't run the online scans yet, but I don't have windows live photo gallery installed and task manager doesn't show any particular programs eating resources that shouldn't be. When I run iTunes I have really bad lag...

I also checked out all the programs running under Task Manager and all seem legit.

How do I remove shared folders that show up under My Computer?

I've also noticed...
winlogon reinstates these three folders after I delete them, I guess upon restart:
C:\Program Files\xerox
C:\Program Files\microsoft frontpage
c:\program files\outlook express

c:\windows...
\.jagex_cache_32 6mb
\downloaded installations 160mb
\downloaded program files 1mb
\driver cache 123mb
\erdnt
\ie7updates
\ime 1mb
\internet logs 17mb
\lastgood 1mb
\minidump
\mui
\nkccdviewersetting
\occache
\Prefetch 4mb
\registeredpackages 55mb
\registration 1mb
\sxscapenddel
\temp 1mb
\winsxs 30mb
7 files titled 00...tmp
5 files titled set...tmp

\system32\urttemp 3mb
97 files titled _00...tmp.dll
1174 files titled set...tmp

 

I've run Kaspersky and ESET. Neither found any threats or issues. Next.... Windows Live OneCare.

 

I ran Windows Live OneCare, which found some issues but no viruses. Next... Secunia.

 

Ok, I've run Secunia...

I ran the easy fixes, but I have 8 issues that remain...
INSECURE
---
Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) 2.x
Microsoft Access 2002
Microsoft Excel 2002
Microsoft Outlook 2002
Microsoft Powerpoint 2002
Microsoft Word 2002

END OF LIFE
---
Power DVD 3.x
RegCleaner 4.x

Any suggestions?

There are also a bunch of files in c:\i386 that are incomplete; it seems they are installation files; word.doc would be word.do_, etc.