>Avast doesn't say, or I am not seeing it, but my guess is a >Trojan.
Trojans and spyware will slow down the machine. I had one spyware that was trying to dial out of my internal modem and was causing delays because it was timing out (there was no dial tone). Anti-spyware software is not based on any science of 100% removing your spyware but they are guaranteed to hog up your resources and slow down your system as much as some of the spyware itself. I just keep deleting the cookies and that helps a bit. You may want to manually go through command prompt and delete all the files in the Cookies subdirectory (if you have such a subdirectory). Use DEL *.*.
You could set up a network where you have a fresh install of WinXP on one machine networked to another machine that you use for internet.
I noticed my spyware/trojan crap in my machine while running the floppy simulator. If you click on "Check Cable" in the MPDOS PRO software and your LPT rate keeps giving you inconsistent answers, you know something in the background is screwing around with your system.
I am referring to MPDOS Pro described here (in case you did not know):
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320185491302I would not say that Windows XP is bad since you can write software that is immune to spyware/trojan crap like MPDOS Pro is and still use the various advantages of Windows XP.
(Stop background tasks while your task runs is one example.)
