BAD PC problem HELP

Mike, forget everything that everyone just said. I know exactly what your problem is.On the web, there are plenty of fake registry cleaners that are more of a scam than anything. The problem is it's legal scam. What it is is by pressing yes you allow them to pretty much ruin your computer. In turn, you will have to buy their "products" in order to fix the supposed problems that you never had but now you do.I first notice these scams when my engineer creationist brother decided to do almost the same thing you did. Long story short, he called me up one day and asked me to come over. After I thoroughly interrogated him, the truth came out that he clicked on these supposed free registry cleaners and then everything went downhill from there.I ended up backing up all his crap and installed a new OS.Oh, and the reason sp2 made your computer slow is because it hadn't stopped installing you dumbass. Especially on old machines, it does take forever for it to install quietly in the background. It also requires a lot of memory, so you not having enough memory for it is another problem. By the way, the dumbass thing is a joke. Not everyone is as perfect as I am I don't know how it is on that godforsaken island that you live on, but over here on the mainland across the pond from you decent computers are cheaper than dirt. You could easily buy a 2ghz 1gig ddr computer for like $120, which I'm sure is like 50 euro or something these days.But the main thing is do us a favor and don't ever run a program that claims to clean up your registry or whatever other components of your OS again unless you know what the hell is going on. In fact, I wouldn't even turn on your computer without consulting one of us here first. Just drop us a line asking whether it's safe to turn on your computer or not before pressing the power button.

Speaking as a linux fan, I highly recommend average joes using any linux distro. Ubuntu is nice, but they really didn't have older machines in mind when they wrote it. Here are some reasons why I recommend against using linux for average joes.(1) startup is painfully slow, especially on older machines. Compared to xp, ubuntu looks like a snail during startup.(2) most people don't know how to use linux, so when you want help who are you going to turn to?(3) online linux "pros" are some of the worst people that have ever existed. When I was a newbie linux user, I went online to ask for help on installing certain programs. I got two 1-liners and a dozen "you're stupid, don't waste our time" answers. The 1-liners absolutely did not help at all and the "you're stupid" answers almost made me stop using linux. I can confidently say that almost everything I know about linux I figured out by myself, and I'm talking about spending thousands and thousands of waking hours trying to make the damn programs to work. So don't expect much help from the online linux community.(4) It will cost you at least 20 hours trying to figure out how to run basic programs originally written for windows on a linux system. Just don't go there.In short, it's better if you just stick with xp if you have it already.Added by edit.Once upon a time I literally got on my knees and prayed I'd see a desktop after I spent many hours installing a linux OS. My faith went out the window when a black screen turned up. I spent the next eternity trying to figure out the commands to make the damn thing work.Edited by Taz, : No reason given.

Well, there's your problem. Norton is a piece of crap... pardon my french. There really isn't a need to have it start up with your OS every single time. What I do with my machine is I have everything disabled and once my machine is up and running I'd start running all the essential programs, like the anti-virus. I agree, to a certain point at least. The problem I see is Mikey Mouse there might be doing other things he's not telling us, like playing games and stuff. I agree that if you only want to use the comp for internet and typing up stuff, then by all means ubuntu is perfect for you. But let's be honest. Do these people actually exist? If you're an average joe, you're gonna need to spend hours and hours trying to figure out stuff, something that Mikey Mouse has mentioned he doesn't have a lot of right now. I guess I'm an oldie with a grudge from the past. If the ubuntu community is like what you say, I wish Mikey Mouse there the best of luck. I said that with some reservations. I agree completely... up to a point. What I meant is there will come a time when a linux user will wish he could use a windows based program on a linux machine. Let's face it. Most programs out there aren't written for linux. The way I see it, it's best that linux is left to those who know a little more about comp than the average joe.Mikey Mouse, here is a message for you if you're reading this. If you have the time, I have no objection to you using ubuntu. It's certainly a user-friendly OS. However, no matter what happens you will be forced to invest time into the project, and it will also take time to getting use to. I'll come back in a few months to say "I told you so".