Greg wrote:

<<AVG is the only program and everything is updated. I keep my
start-up folder empty >>

AVG could be the cause of your slow shutdown problem. I see many computers 
running AVG which are quite badly infected with malware. The owners are of 
course completely unaware of this until things start to slow down or 
strange things start happening.  Avg is OK for viruses, but doesn't seem to 
be aware of many classes of malware.

I would download Malwarebytes and Avira, both free, update them and then 
run full system scans with both. Make sure you scan in Safe Mode as most 
malware items will protect themselves once they are running in your system.

If either of these programs either won't install or won't update, that's a 
sure sign that your system is badly infected. That's how this stuff 
protects itself. Before scanning, you should disable System Restore, as 
some malware will regenerate itself from System Restore after it's been 
deleted. If there are any malware items found with either of these 
programs, remove the malware and then run the scan again, as there are 
sometimes several layers which have to be removed before the job is 
complete. Keep scanning in Safe Mode until the computer comes up clean.

Normally I'd recommend running these scans by removing the hard drive and 
inserting it in a known clean computer---but that's not so easy with laptops.

The startup folder is but one of many places from which startups can be 
launched.  Malware, of course, is designed to be invisible, and will not 
normally show up in any startup manager.

Automatic updates which don't get fully installed are another common cause 
of slow booting or slow shutdowns. For that, and other reasons, I don't 
recommend automatic XP updates. I think they tend to cause more problems 
than they solve. But I know there are 2 schools of thought about that, so 
it's very much a users choice. Better to rely on your computer having good 
security and safe practice in the first place.

Don Penlington 

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