Possible virus?

[ajz090]

Hello,
I am looking for some help. I believe I have a virus on my computer. I have avast virus protection (the free verison). When I first got my computer last christmas it was very fast. Now it is very slow. I know the computer was installed with low memory (i think) I've deleted everything that is not need except pics and a few vids, i have maybe 50pics and 5 vids on my computer all together. I have ran my virus scanner and no virus's come up. I've also defragged my computer a couple of times. So im stumped. I was thinking about doing a factory reset. How would this effect my computer? I know i'll lose all personal info that I have on it, but will my computer run faster again? Please help!

 

[treefrog07]

Some programs like to start every time Windows starts, like adobe and others. They consume resources (RAM) and will slow your machine. And there is no good reason for them to start until you actually want them to start.

Click on Start>Run then type "msconfig" without the quotes. Go to the Startup tab to see what starts when windows starts. Uncheck the ones you do not need running. Some names are a little cryptic - google them to see what the are. De-select those you do not need, the press the Apply button, and then the OK button.

XP will want to re-boot, let it. msconfig will show a message at XP startup asking whether or not you want to see the message each time XP boots or not. I would leave the message on until I was sure I de-selected the unneeded startup items, and then choose not to see the message again.