A followup which will help - After you find the programs which are running on your computer, you can go to this web site to help identify them. There are probably other sites which do the same thing, maybe better. I found this one in a hurry. Bob
http://homecomputerrepaironline.com/startlist/html/startlist_d.html

Hi Lewis
I think most computers are slowed down by an excessive amount of programs (both good and bad) which are open or running in Windows. Some are more troublesome than others. Many people spend money on a new computer because theirs is "too slow". In many cases, their present computer could be made to run faster by removing unnecessary and undesireable programs. The next time you have that shortage of memory problem, press the Ctrl-Alt-Del keys simultaneously. That will bring up Windows Task Manager with a list of all the programs that are running at that moment. Write them all down verbatim. Two which must always be there are Explorer and Systray. Everything else is suspect. Find out what each one is and decide if you need it, or want it to be running. Some may be programs which are useful to you. Others may be spyware, or things that are helpful to somebody else but harmful to you. You can probably identify all the items with a Google search, but if there are any unknowns, you might get help from someone here. After you've done your research, you'll have a good idea which programs you want to prevent from starting. 
To allow you to control what is running, Windows includes a utility called MSConfig. 
Instructions for using MSConfig can be found here.
http://netsquirrel.com/msconfig/
There are some third party programs that serve a similar purpose. 
Two startup related programs that I like are by Mike Lin at:
http://mlin.net/


Folks,
On various occasions I get a message that makes absolutely no sense to
me, but wonder if it's a warning of some kind.  When I try to do
something - like preparing to run a program I get this:
      There is not enough memory to run this program.  Quit one or more
programs and then try again.
I'm using Windows Me, have 256 Mb RAM memory, with Norton's A-V, SpyBot,
AdAware, and ZoneAlarm all up and running.  As far as I know, nothing is
running at the time I get this message - at least nothing is showing
along the bottom of the screen  (Is this called the System Tray?).
The only way to stop this (temporarily) is to reboot from scratch.  It's
an aggravation and not a real problem for me, but it does make me wonder
if it has anything to do with my on-going problem with computer lock-ups.
Can there be something running in the background without any indication
showing?
Many thanks for suggestions,  Lewis Emerson

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