I am trying to speed up my computer..

[funnygirl]

As when I switch on it takes literally 15 minutes to load.

I have loads of programmes on my pc, but can anyone tell me which one are totally unnecessary??

I have heard it is silly to have 2 virus check programmes and things like that.

Any comments will be appreciated.

[Iggle Piggle]

Anti-virus programs can detect each other and go barmy, taking a long time to scan, etc
I would bet on the slowness of your machine being the virus checker itself.
I find some virus checkers slow a machine down a lot, I use Avira, it seems to be the best free anti-virus and it doesn't load the machine like others can

[ChuckFickens]

I have loads of programmes on my pc, but can anyone tell me which one are totally unnecessary??

Not without knowing what you have on there

Also programs on there own won't slow down the startup of the computer unless a part of them is being run at startup.

Click on the start button then run, type into the run box msconfig and hit enter, click on the startup tab and there is a llist of what programs are loading at startup, to dissable on take the tick out from next to it.

some things are obvious you don't need them running at startup, some are not so obvious, if you go to google and type the name in you can normally get lots of info on what each program does and if it's OK to disable it.

[rov1200]

Best idea probably is to start afresh with a clean system. Then add only the tasks you require. Now that you have plug and play you no longer have to worry about the drivers of most devices. Save all your photos, etc first though.

[Hymie]

I’ll bet a £ to a penny that your ISP is Virgin (ntl).

A couple of months back, they changed their anti-virus (I don’t know why), but now my PC takes around 15 minutes from switch on until the hard drive stops. During this ‘boot-up’, all applications (including e-mail & the internet) are available, but at a much slower pace (due to whatever the anti-virus is doing).

I make myself a cup of coffee and relax, while my PC boots – if you find a method of reducing the boot time – please post it for the benefit of others.

[MarkRae]

Hymie, you can't possibly be using VM's PCGuard...? Surely not...

[Hymie]

Well it (PCguard) appears to work better that McAfee, which did not detect that my PC had become part of the world-wide netbot network.

Since giving up on McAfee, I’ve not had any viruses (that I know of).