Run several of the "cleanup" programs like CCleaner, but carefully review the precise meaning of each "set" of junk files to be removed -- I find that some of the default settings are not acceptable.

In task manager, look at the "Physical memory remaining" -- If it's less than about 10% of your 2GB, then either you've got a real memory hog program in there, or... you need more RAM.

I'm sure you've heard it before, but I have to repeat that evidently, Symantec's top priority is not system performance. There are many other equally-good AV packages on the market with a far smaller footprint and much less performance impact.

Jim

thanks JD,
I tried ccleaner and I did have many registry broken links and useless log files. So far I have not had any speed issues so who knoes; it might have worked.

Thanks again,

The Windows Live Safety Scanner [onecare.live.com] also has good junk file removal and registry cleanup.

The 'Protection' scan part of it can take several hours to run, so plan accordingly.

Jim

[edited by: jdMorgan at 12:37 am (utc) on Dec. 17, 2007]

I did have many registry broken links

The registry is many times the reason for slowing PCs down. My experience is that cleaning the registry often gives more performance increase than running a defrag utility on the harddisk.

The most used part of your harddisk is probably the swapfile which Windows likes to use even if loads of RAM is available. One thing I have done on my PCs is to make a single partition with the size of 1,5 times RAM and put a fixed sized swapfile on it. With this configuration your swapfile will not be affected by fragmentation in your regular file system as all blocks in the swapfile are in sequence and located close to each other.

Great link JD thanks.

I have also found that some Norton products and AV systems can considerably slow down a system. Not sure if that could also be affecting walkman's issues.

any recs for an alternate Anti Virus that doesn't suck ;)?

thanks guys,

I like AVG myself. Also turn off unnecessary programs at start up.. start > run > type in msconfig > start up tab and uncheck what you don't need

second vote for AVG.

(Symantic & Norton = the worst software ever written, yes, even worse than Microsoft 'Word')

start > run > type in msconfig

which directory is that program in?
when I do this (XP pro sp2) I get an error that it cannot find the program or that I misspelled it.
Thanks for helping a dummy ...

I used to use Symantec, but so many problems with performance and upgrades... I switched to Zone-Alarm Anti-Virus three years ago and have had no problems since. I'm very impressed with it.

bump for more opionions.
ABG; Zone alarm and all against big company crap.

Do you guys have the live protetion on? I mean if you surf a bad site or open an email with a virus, does it protect you?

I run with ZoneAlarm Anti-Virus on which checks emails for viruses. Seems to work because it has found and quarantined some. It also blocks pop-ups and downloads, but this can be overidden where necessary. It also warns if a download is trying to update or access core files.

Obviously I can't compare ZA with how well other software does all this. Nor do I know anything about the full ZA suite which includes anti-spam, etc.

ZA Anti-Virus uses its own firewall, and my WinXP firewall was switched off when it was installed. It also provides a daily virus update which is usually very quick. It does the usual system scan, scheduled or when requested.

Avg

And still use sygate firewall
(I dont think its a great idea )

Back up your data to an external drive. Make sure you have the disks, installer programs, windows install cd, and keys necessary to install the programs you want.
Then install windows from scratch and start fresh.

Yet another vote for AVG.

Symantec wrecked my PC twice in the past. I've been using AVG for about 3 years and it's done the job with no problems.