>>I was just minding my business programming in VFP and machine started slowing down. Within an hour it gows to a craw.
>>
>>Naturally I start investigating. Stopping and/or uninstalling whatever seems suspicious. I notice that for some reason in Windows Task Manager the task manager itself is taking 25% of CPU time.
>>
>>Any idea why this might be?
>>
>>TIA,
>>
>>Alex
>
>There are some general things you can look for:
>
>Bloated temporary folder (not just temporary internet files but your OS temporary folder and subfolders)
>Bloated registry
>Spyware
>too large a prefetch
>Viruses
>Too many apps running in the background
>Disk fragmentation
>
>There's help and directions for each on the web. A good rule of thumb is: what was the last update or download or web search you did just prior to the slowdowns starting? Sometimes a restore to previous date of the registry will resolve updates that causes problems but only do that as a last resort and ONLY after backing up everything (including the registry) and attempting to locate the problem and cleaning your system first (too many temporary files, too large a prefetch, spyware or viruses, etc).

Very good list thank you.

I am now trying to uninstall Norton Ghost which I though I had uninstalled several years ago and I found is running and can't stop the process either ... hmm. Scary.

Alex