[jdm]

"How about getting spyware and adware off the HD?"

I use all of software(s) listed below and my performance is still near a crawl, immediately following boot up. For instance, when my desktop appears, and I click on an icon, it can take up to 2 minutes for a program to start. I get the twirling hourglass for a good 90 seconds.

Help for viruses and malware:

 

 Ad-Aware ... Spybot ... Peper Uninstaller ... HijackThis... CWShredder ... Spyware Blaster ... IE Spyad ... Free online Virus scan ... AVG AntiVirus ... LSPfix ... How to Show Hidden Files ... How to boot into Safe Mode ... How did I get infected in the first place?

[alnitak]

it can take up to 2 minutes for a program to start

OK, it looks like you are using XP: open Task Manager, sort the processes by CPU, and start one of these slow programs. What happens to the top of the process list? Is there an abnormal amount of disk activity? Is the program slow to use once it is up an running?

[7.62 x 51mm]

Try alnitak's reply in Post #6. Sounds like the startup isn't the problem.