HELP!

I have Windows XP Home Edition. I have 11 profiles that are active and
continuosly in use majorly for browsing. I have Kazaa Lite Installed and my
siblings play a lot of online games. There are also a lot of animated icons
added to the MSN Messenger. The computer has been working really slow for the
past month (it is a brand new computer, 3 months old).

Could the Kazaa been causing this? how does online games affect the
computer's performance? what is the virtual memory? PLEASE HELP ME UNDERSTAND
THIS!

John

John wrote:
I have Windows XP Home Edition. I have 11 profiles that are active and
continuosly in use majorly for browsing. I have Kazaa Lite Installed and my
siblings play a lot of online games. There are also a lot of animated icons
added to the MSN Messenger. The computer has been working really slow for the
past month (it is a brand new computer, 3 months old).

Could the Kazaa been causing this? how does online games affect the
computer's performance? what is the virtual memory? PLEASE HELP ME UNDERSTAND
THIS!

John
Firstly, ensure you have a firewall installed. If you don't have SP2
then either get it and enable the firewall, or download and install one
of the free personal firewalls. Do you have an antivirus program
installed? if not, get one of the free personal ones. (AVG, Avast or
similar), install it, update it and do a complete disk scan.
Then, get Spybot
http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=spybotsd
and Adaware
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/
install them, update, and do a complete disk scan with each.
Also empty Temporary Internet files (in IE go to Tools-Internet
Options-general) and see if that lot helps. And yes, you will probably
find that kazaa is at fault. Most knowledgeable people don't touch kazaa
with a barge-pole.

For Virtual memory, have a look at this:
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php

HTH

Gordon,

Thank you for the kick answer!

I actually have MSN Internet Software Premium installed in my computer. I
have the McAfee Firewall and Virus Guard too. I downloaded the Microsoft
Spyware Beta a couple of weeks ago and cleaned up my computer.

What else could be making it so slow? 11 profiles are not a problem? online
gaming neither? I am reading the info about the virtual memory! Thanks!!!!!!
Oh... by Kazaa is such a headache?

John John wrote:
Gordon,

Thank you for the kick answer!

I actually have MSN Internet Software Premium installed in my computer. I
have the McAfee Firewall and Virus Guard too. I downloaded the Microsoft
Spyware Beta a couple of weeks ago and cleaned up my computer.

What else could be making it so slow? 11 profiles are not a problem? online
gaming neither? I am reading the info about the virtual memory! Thanks!!!!!!
Oh... by Kazaa is such a headache?
Machine slowdown is usually caused by one or more of the following: (in
no particular order)
1. Spyware/malware
2. Viruses
3. Large temporary Internet files.
4. Not enough RAM, especially if you use fast User Switching and have
several users logged in at the same time.
5. Hard Disk not being de-fragged.