From power-on until the computer is ready for use takes between 2 - 4 minutes, which is very slow! I have used several housekeeping programs on the computer, such as PC Bugdoctor. Also, every few weeks I clear the Temporary Files (by deleting all files in the %temp% directory), run Disk Cleanup, use the Check Disk facility, run a complete antivirus check, and run Ewido to scan for any malware. I also complete the Disk Defragmenter about twice a year. However, these have not been able to speed-up the computer. Interestingly, when running Norton Antivirus despite deleting the temporary files it still scans thousands of ‘Temporary Internet Files’. Why is this happening? Once the computer finally starts I find the speed acceptable, but it is just the wait at the beginning which is becoming tiresome. How can I speed up the computer? Also, the Yahoo 7 toolbar has installed itself on the computer. I don’t want this toolbar, so can you advise how to remove this item? The computer is running Windows XP Home Edition (patched to Service Pack 2) on a Dell Dimension 2400 2.4 GHz.

In most cases, slow startup times can be attributed to several factors: many programs attempting to load on startup, clogged up Windows, or because of the age of the computer. Dealing with the first scenario, it is possible you have quite a few programs attempting to load on startup, which is causing the computer to slow down. So, we can try and reduce the number of programs which load on startup. Go to the ‘Start’ menu > ‘Run’ and type ‘msconfig’ (without the quotes) and click OK. In the window that appears, click the ‘Startup’ tab. Here you will see a list of all programs and processes which load on startup. The entries which are ticked indicate they are loading on startup. Look through the list and try to determine if any of the entries which are ticked are not essential and are candidates to disable from loading on startup. If you find any such programs and wish to prevent them from loading on startup, untick their entry. However, if you don’t know what a particular entry does, then do not untick the entry as it could be an essential program or process needed for the operation of your computer. Once you have finished, click OK and then restart your computer. The computer will now restart, and not load those processes you disabled. A message may appear warning that you are running Windows in Selective Startup Mode. This is because you are no longer running the default Windows startup mode since you have customised which processes you wish to load on startup. Therefore, you are running in Selective Startup. Should this message appear, just tick the box so the message does not appear again and then click OK.

The next possible cause of the slow start up is that Windows is simply clogged-up. This happens after several years of computer usage, when the computer has had various programs installed and uninstalled. Every time such operations are conducted, not every trace of these programs and associated files are removed. Therefore, over time there is a build-up of old files and registry entries. After a while, this can take a serious toll on the performance of Windows. While performing system maintenance is good practice and can help, when things get to this stage doing elementary system maintenance won’t really assist in fixing the problem. Furthermore, there isn’t really much you can do to prevent this from happening - it is just an unfortunate by-product of computer usage. In this situation, the best option is to backup all your important data, reformat the computer and then reinstall Windows from scratch. Many people perform this procedure once every few years so their system performance does not degrade too much. Just make sure you have a backup (preferably multiple backups) of your personal data before completing this procedure, since all the data on your hard drive will be lost!

The final cause of the problem can be that the computer is getting old. With new software appearing demanding higher system performance, a computer purchased a few years ago that was cutting-edge may not be able to cope with the latest software. However, looking at the history of the Dell Dimension 2400 this computer appears to be relatively recent (year 2004). So, this is probably not your problem. Therefore, I would suggest trying a clean reinstallation of Windows.

Next, we will discuss your question about Norton Antivirus still scanning your ‘Temporary Internet Files’ despite clearing the temporary files on the computer. This is because the ‘%temp%’ directory points to the temporary files directory for your user profile (e.g. C:Documents and SettingsAlastairLocal SettingsTemp). This stores temporary files for various programs on your computer. However, this does not include the Temporary Internet Files, as these are stored in a separate directory. This is done for a good reason, because there can be literally thousands of Temporary Internet Files at any time, and having these combined with the temporary files for programs would be an organisational and computational nightmare! So, you will need to clear the Temporary Internet Files directory. This can be done through Internet Explorer. Open Internet Explorer and then go to the ‘Tools’ menu > ‘Internet Options’. In the window that appears, select the ‘General’ tab. Then, click the ‘Delete Files’ button. At the prompt, tick ‘Delete all offline content’ and click OK. You may need to wait for a bit, because if you have a lot of Temporary Internet Files this could take a few minutes (or more) to complete. You might also wish to click the ‘Delete Cookies’ button to delete the Cookies data on your computer. Be aware, Cookies can be used to save login and password details so websites can ‘remember’ you and automatically log you in. By clearing the Cookies you are also clearing this data, so you will need to re-login to any websites.

Last, the Yahoo 7 toolbar should be easy to uninstall. You can find instructions with the steps to uninstall the program at: help.yahoo.com/help/au/companion/companion-08.html .

As a final note, be very careful when downloading and using programs which claim to fix your computer. Many of these are not genuine and will allow you to scan the computer for free, report you have numerous errors and then charge you to fix these errors. In most cases, the software is just a scam and will not be able to fix the identified errors, or just reported fake errors in the first instance. I suggest you only use well-known software, and make sure you search for reviews on the software before downloading and trying.