There's a start up file - all sorts of rubbish gets put into it over time - get hold of a free copy of windows defender from microsoft - you may already have it on your machine. Click on Software Explorer and select Startup Programs. Remove any suspicious looking programmes by using the Remove Button - will just take out of the startup list.
Get hold of a free copy of Spybot Search & Destroy and run it to remove any spyware.
Get hold of a free copy of CCleaner and run it - then use the Registry feature to tidy up your computer's registry.
Then defragment your disk.
I did all this on my machine last week - it took about an hour.
When the machine is running use W Defender to see what programmes are running - get rid of any suspicious ones.
Do regular housekeeping...
Good luck...
Peccavi, January 2009
