Have I missed the answer to this question forever?

Make sure you have at least 1 gb of free space on your hard drive, otherwise you may have spyware or a virus sitting happily on your pc, go to Edit [Moderator]: Link removed and download adaware (It's Free) and AVG anti-virus (Also free), update both and run full scans of your system.

AVG

AUTO SPAMFILTER

&

Adaware

AUTO SPAMFILTER

Also try this free registry check

AUTO SPAMFILTER

Thanks BDV. I will do that.

I just looked at your info. Where are you in the North?

Northern ireland, derry or londonderry or stroke city lol

My system denies the registry check.

But I'm working on it.

I have a cottage above Recess in Connemara. Just got back last week.

Sound more and more like spyware or virus

Thats few hours drive from the sunny north

Yeah, well, the only time I went to the north, I was on a coach and they stopped us, and guys with guns came on the coach and froze us, and looked under the seats, and we were spooked.

Turns out, a car going through the checkpoint had been blown up. Wrong car. Young family blown up, thought they had someone else. This was a quite a few years ago. I haven't been back to the north since.

I think something is cooking, a spyware or virus, as you say. But I have spyware and Norton running.

I still think it might be a leaky application. I haven't figured out how to suss that out.

Norths a nice place now due to cease fire, but anyway uninstall norton, download programs i said, run, update and remove.

I have been doing this crap for years and TBH i find the free AVG anti virus much better than norton, but thats from a computer fixers viewpoint, lol. Anyway its up to you, download avg and adaware update and run, and tell me what happens

Shee-it, uninstall Norton? Abandon my muthuh? I will have to consider that seriously.

I may just do it. And I will report back.

I don't see any reason to uninstall Norton AV - apart, perhaps, from the standpoint of its large impact on system resources, which, if yours is a late-model machine with a relatively fast processor and at least 256MB of RAM (though more is better, of course), should be tolerable. Norton AV consistently scores very highly on independent threat tests, right up at the very top, and is hard to beat for effective protection. Your call, though.

AVG Free is pretty good for a free antivirus. It can be downloaded directly from the publisher:

Grisoft AVG Free

Also available for free to individual home users, and reasonably well regarded, are:

• AntiVir Personal Edition Antivirus only

• Avast! Home Edition Antivirus only

• CA eTrust EZ Armor LE security suite (Firewall/Antivirus suite, 1 year free trial version w/full function for Windows users)

Ad-Aware SE Personal is well regarded free privacy tool which also may be downloaded directly from the publisher:

LavaSoft Ad-Aware SE Personal

Honestly, I'm not a big fan of "registry cleaner/tweaker" apps, and I'm particularly unfond of the "Free Scan" and "Free Trial" come-ons which invariably find problems they'll gladly "fix" for you just as soon as you pay for the full version. Just about anything any of them will do for you once you've ponied up your money can be done by truly free software.

Free for non-commercial use, CCleaner includes a fairly effective registry maintenence tool (which it labels "Issues") along with a superb general cleanup tool. CCleaner is regularly updated, has a good built-in user help file, and offers a responsive help forum as well as support-via-email.

Free, reliable, highly regarded, and feature-laden, long-time antispyware favorite Spybot S&D, with its "System Internals" tool, effectively handles many registry issues, and is an excellent companion to Ad-Aware SE.

Free, but no longer published or supported by Microsoft, Microsoft Regclean (Note: This link is to RegClean 4.1a, Build 7364.1, the January '02 final Microsoft release, hosted by licensed mirror MajorGeeks) deals fairly effectively with many registry issues commonly found in theHKEY_CLASSES_ROOT section of the registry, though that's all it does; it looks at no other section of the registry. Read THIS before using.

A well respected, reasonably effective, more broad-ranging free registry maintenence tool is Lexun's Lexun FreeWare RegScrub XP (The publisher appears to have abandoned this program; it too is linked here via MajorGeeks)

I fix computers for a living and personally use AVG as it tends to work when the rest won't, it also uses very little resources, meaning your computer will run faster, plus the added benefit is it is free.

Ad-aware is also great, and free, but its up to you as its your pc.

Registry cleaner is just another maintenance program, once again its up to you if you want to use it or not.

Thanks, Timber and BDV.

I won't uninstall Norton and have decided against Windows Registry scan (scam?)

I have 512 mg RAM, so that is not an issue.

Despite timber's statement about Norton AV, I now use the free Grisoft and am very impressed with the frequency of automatic updates. I used to have Norton's SystemWorks, which included the AV portion, but it caused too many problems and I quit it.

When I read your initial post about not enough virtual memory, I tried to remember where that is set. You may have to enter your BIOS to change that, but I am not an expert.

I would also run "msconfig" and go to the last tab, the one regarding startup items, and uncheck as many as you can figure out (sometimes not that easy) that you do not use on a regular basis. You only want running in the background those programs that you know that you use.

For instance, I use Microsoft Word, my scanner, photography software, and lots of other things irregularly. I don't want them running and using system resources. When I want them, I go to Programs and click on them to open them.

There is a site which lists those WIndows programs that are absolutely essential to be running, but I can't remember where it is now.

I might also click, simultaneously, control, alt, and delete, until the Task Manager finally shows up. That will also show you what is running. You could copy down the words, then Google them, to see what they actually are.

But everyone is correct in that you should first check for virus, adware, spyware.

Microsoft also has a free program from Windows Update called "Malicious Software Removal Tool". It is periodically updated and you can sign up for an email notification for it and other new or updated WIndows apps, drivers, etc.

Of course, you should be on Automatic Updates from Microsoft so that all important stuff comes directly to you on a regular basis.

To double check the accuracy of Norton AV, you can also go to McAfee's web site and have them analyze your system for free with their definitions.

Thanks, Sumac. It is all worth a try.

I appreciate the many links, Timber. I might try CCleaner, especially if it has a good cleanup tool. I uninstalled my Norton Utilities by mistake and can't find my install disc.

With XP, to change your virtual memory/page file size, while logged on as Administartor or as a user with full Administrator priveleges, go to:

Start>Settings>Control Panel>System>"Advanced" tab>"Performance" panel, Click "Settings"

1. Open the "Advanced" tab
   
2. In the "Virtual Memory" panel, click "Change"
   
3. Under "Drive [Volume Lable]" select your root drive, the drive on which Windows is installed (usually drive C: )
   
4. Under "Paging file size for selected drive", click "Custom size"
   
5. In the "Initial size (MB)" box, enter a number at least 1.5 times greater than your physical RAM (i.e. if you have 512MB of RAM, enter 768)
   
6. In the "Maximum Size (MD) box, enter a number equal to or greater than the number you entered into the "Initial size (MB)" box.
   
7. Click "Set"
   
8. Click "OK" to close the "Virtual Memory" dialog
   
9. Click "Apply"
   
10. Click "OK" to close the "Performance Options" dialog
    
11. Click "OK" to close the System control panel
    
12. Reboot

Notes: Your paging file should be set to a minimum of not less than 1.5 times your actual physical RAM. The maximum size may be set to any number equal to or greater than that, though little if any benefit will be had setting the maximum any larger than 4 times your physical RAM; doing so pretty much just wastes disk space and can actually slow performance. Some folks, myself included, find setting a fixed-size paging file (that is, both minimum and maximum the same) of between 1.5 to 2 times the amount of physical RAM works best for them; on this particular machine, which I use for just about everything likely to be encountered by the typical home user, my paging file is set to a fixed size of 1.5 times my physical RAM. This machine has a relatively fast processor and 2 Gigs (2024MB) of very fast RAM, along with an upper-end video card with 256MB of its own fast memory. You might want to experiment a bit to find the size configuration that works best for you.

Something else that can improve performance a bit, if at some cost to "Prettyness", is to select, while in the "Performance" panel, the "Visual Effects" tab, and click to select "Adjust for Best Performance", click "Apply" (your machine will tell you to wait while it adjusts itself to the new settings), then click "Apply" and "OK"; Windows won't be quite as "pretty", but it should be a bit more responsive. No reboot is required for this change to take effect, and of course you can alter or reverse it at any time.

An excellent discussion of Virtual Memory/Page file, with max/min recommendations a little different than mine, can be found HERE. Here is what Microsoft says about changing the size of the virtual memory/page file.