Applications slow to start

Over the past few weeks, I've noticed that applications, and it doesn't
matter which app, have been very slow to start if I click on a file or
shortcut, such as .doc for M/S Word, rather than starting with Word and from
within the app, opening the file/document.

I would like to say the problem is on one of two of my machines, but I've
noticed the problem on systems at work as well as friends and associates
calling me about the same problem on their PCs.

This problem exists for M/S apps as well as other products such as .pdf
files.

I do not think it has to do with anti-virus scanning since many of the
systems have the usual suites and products such as Norton, CA Mcafee, AVG,
etc.

To define slow, I'd say anywhere from 20 to 45 seconds.

I do not have a actual date as to when this started happening, but I',m
willing to guess it happened when a M/S update came down the line.

Any suggestions?

~alan

"~~Alan~~" <a.shepro RemoveThis @NoSpamGmail.com> wrote in message
news:%231A21L%23aIHA.4140@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Over the past few weeks, I've noticed that applications, and it doesn't
> matter which app, have been very slow to start if I click on a file or
> shortcut, such as .doc for M/S Word, rather than starting with Word and
> from within the app, opening the file/document.
>
> I would like to say the problem is on one of two of my machines, but I've
> noticed the problem on systems at work as well as friends and associates
> calling me about the same problem on their PCs.
>
> This problem exists for M/S apps as well as other products such as .pdf
> files.
>
> I do not think it has to do with anti-virus scanning since many of the
> systems have the usual suites and products such as Norton, CA Mcafee, AVG,
> etc.
>
> To define slow, I'd say anywhere from 20 to 45 seconds.
>
> I do not have a actual date as to when this started happening, but I',m
> willing to guess it happened when a M/S update came down the line.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> ~alan
>

If this happened to one of my machines then I would take some
measurements with my stop watch both before and after the
following test.
1. Sever the connection between the machine and the Internet.
2. Run msconfig.exe and disable each and every task under
the Startup tab.
3. Tick the box "Hide all Microsoft services" under the Services
tab, then untick the remaining services.
4. Reboot the machine.

If this made no difference then I would load a vanilla version
of the OS onto one of my spare disks in order to see the
difference.

I would also launch the Task Manager and examine the CPU
loading during these slow starts in order to find out the loading
figure and which task loads up the CPU.