I created a keyboard shortcut to the command prompt (CTRL-ALT-D) and up
to today, it took a fraction of a second to get the command prompt
window to display. Now it takes 30 seconds and during that time, I can
not switch to any of the running programs by clicking on the taskbar or
using ALT-TAB. When the command prompt window finally appears, all the
windows whose icons I clicked on will be restored.

What could cause this? I installed PLUS! for XP yesterday -- is that
what is causing this?