Slow computer

[HiJackThis1.99]

I have a three year old computer with Windows Vista. It has no problems with it other than being ridiculously slow. I know for a fact that it has no viruses on it, so that is not any kind of problem.

It is just slow. Sometimes when I open up a program, like Internet Explorer, the computer freezes up for a little while before I can use IE.

This is what I think the problem is but not sure how to safely deal with it. I think the computer is running way too many processes. I say this because when I go into task manager and shut off a lot of processes it runs smoother. I also noticed that as I am using the computer one of the processes is svchost.exe which takes up 300 megabytes of RAM. This turns the computer into a very slow computer and I have to kill this process to restore functionality. But after like 30 minutes this svchost process can start up by itself again.

What steps should I take to make this computer smoothly ?

 

[Route44]

What if you use another browser? Do you get the same issue?

svhost is critical for the running of Windows. Never shut that down.

How much RAM does your system have? What have you done to make sure you are not infected? What security software do you have installed running in real time protection?

 

[HiJackThis1.99]

What if you use another browser? Do you get the same issue?

svhost is critical for the running of Windows. Never shut that down.

How much RAM does your system have? What have you done to make sure you are not infected? What security software do you have installed running in real time protection?

It has nothing to do with the browser, it is a problem with anything, that was just an example. The computer is just slow.

The computer have 1 gigabtye of RAM.

I know that I am not infected because whenever I download a file on the internet I use VirusTotal scanner which uses a total of 44 completely updated anti-virus programs. This computer does not act as if it has a virus. Also I have scanned this computer many times and exactly as I expected it is clean. Like I said I know for a fact that this computer is not infected. Something else is wrong.

Not all svchosts are critical for running windows. Whenever I shut mine done the computer works fine and I have no problems at all, in fact it works better because it frees up the RAM. I know some are, as killing them means certain functions are disabled, but this svchost is not a problem.

I use AVG Free Edition for protection.

Like I said, I think the problem is simply disabling a lot of process the computer runs from the beginning. When I first got this computer is ran smoothly. Now, for some reason, is runs more stuff than necessary.

 

[mike1959]

You have Vista and 1GB RAM, so if you can fit another 512MB or 1GB of RAM you would see a difference in speed.
Have you run the program 'CCleaner' lately? It's a 'must have' on my PC, really reliable program, and it keeps the clutter down.
http://www.piriform.com/
Also do a defrag on your hard drive every couple of weeks, I use;
http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/download/