Vista64 running slower and slower

[anderson3]

First off, sorry if this has been covered before.
I'm running Vsta Home Premium 64 service pack 2, (the home build in my sig) and when i first built my system it would fly through all my day to day stuff. Now over the past two years, it takes for ever to start up, surf, load music, etc. My parents are running an e-machines (vista home premium 32) that isn't near the machine mine is but is just the same, was more than enough for their day to day at first but now they use my dads laptop because the desktop is so slow. My IE8 will sometimes open like normal mabe a tab or two, but then it won't load anything until I re-boot or sign out and back in. The parents computer is giving some errors too, like win explorer stops responding etc. Not huge problems with either, but it is quite annoying!!

Can anybody help me with this.....Ive been considering backing up all my files and doing a clean install, but you shouldnt have to do that every couple years to keep a system healthy.
i've not done much "mantainance" on either machene other than running malwarebites and super-antispyware periodically to get what avast lets through the crack.

Please help, i know im just thinking too hard and the answer is right there...Thanks in advance

[Iamjosh]

You did not mention what type of anti-virus/malware software you are running?

I would download the following and do a full scan on everything.

1.http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

2.http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

3.http://www.ccleaner.com/

and

4.http://free.avg.com/ww-en/homepage

or

5.http://www.avira.com/en/pages/index.php

Once you can be almost sure that you do not have any malware, then I would perform the hardware check using this:

http://www.memtest.org/

[ConLog]

Originally Posted by anderson3 but you shouldnt have to do that every couple years to keep a system healthy

Welcome to the world of Windows!

I'm sorry but since the days of Windows 95 I have have to do wipe and reinstalls every couple of years to keep my Windows PC running smoothly - nothing to do with the processor installed.

No 3rd party software I have ever known has eradicated this problem, it only delays the inevitable reinstall.

Sorry!

[MikeMoss]

Here is a trick I have found for reinstalling Windows and it really works.

Create a new user ID.
Reboot in the new ID.

Use msconfig to turn off everything that starts at boot, all processes start up items etc.
Only leave the essential items running.

Reboot your computer and boot into the new ID again.

Start the window Install from within Windows.

When the process is finished you will have an almost clean install, with none of the old setting etc. carried over, but all you old files and settings will still be there under your old ID.

You can still boot to your old ID until you are sure that everything is up to date, Favorites etc.

Once you have everything set you can remove the original User ID and your all set.

Some but not all of your software will need to be reinstalled, it depends on the program but this is a safe way to get a really clean install with out the hassle of loosing things you forgot to back up.

I've done this on a number of different computers all with very good results, you computer will run like new again.

Mike