Computer help forum: Delayed response after clicking icons on desktop or programs

You're 512 MB of RAM will run the machine but if you've got lots of programs running in the background, it will cause the computer to hesitate. Heck, McAfee retail and all it's subprograms can cause a delay in opening/closing such programs.. You might try disabling it to see if the issue fixes itself.

Some steps below might help:

Cleanup Steps

Hope this helps.

Grif

Ram is NOT the only thing to cause this, 512 RAM is fine to run if you keep your PC optimal, 1 GIG is better for XP.
first you should use a RAM defrager program, this will free up RAM that may have not been released when closing a program. ( there are alot of free RAM defragers around the net)
next is to disable start up programs, go to RUN and type MSCONFIG
go to 'service' tab and 'start' up tab, disable anything you do not want to start up with windows, if you do not know what it is that you are disabling then leave it alone.
next is go down to the task bar in windows,
right click the mouse, CLICK on TASK MANAGER,
click on the PROCESSES'S tab, you will see a list of running procssess, generally you should be below 40, anything higher is too much, and means you are running more processes's than you really need to.
right click a processes's and click end to kill the process.
if you do not KNOW what the process is, google the process name to find a description of it.
killing a useless process can have a MAJOR impact on your PC's speed,
this method can close a crashed program on your desktop as well, just kill the process of the program in task manager and the program will close.
also the task manager will tell you how much CPU the given procees is using, 100% is BAD, if you see this kill the process if it is a usless one, and it will free your PC freeze up.
point of note 256 RAM is not recomended for XP, if you use this much RAM, then you should no open more than 2 windows at a time to maximise your RAM.
XP is a RAM hog and uses 128 just to operate.

Going along with your third message about the Task Manager - Performance Tab.

Your Total Commit Charge should be less than the Total Physical Memory. If is is larger than you definately need to stop a few un-necessary programs at start up.

Making sure you have no Spyware/Adware on your computer is also a good suggestion!

Shashank_dragon,

i hope you realize that my post was in GENERAL for ANYONE with this problem, not just the original poster.
my 256 RAM comment is in refrence to EBAY JUNKIES comment about his girlfriends PC, or anyone who is using this amount of RAM.

Markerichannelly
you raise yet another good point,
but to add to your comment, with hard drives you need to Defrag them often.
if you move or delete files regularly you need to defrag at least once a month to stay optimal.
UNIBLUE's powersuite is a good place to start, it is also certified by Microsoft.
it has a RAM optimizer, and a registry optimizer. PC speed up tools, plus spyware protection and much more.
a good hard drive defrager varies so it more of trial and error to find one you like.
i use an old Norton 2002 version as it is not a resource hog like the newer versions,
Shashank is correct on AVG antivirus as it uses little resources.

beware of FREE programs around the net, most of these programs carry spyware of diffrent types.

I had similar issues with a harddrive recently. My system would take forever to start Windows (sometimes, it would just hang and get stuck), to start programs, or to respond to most user actions. When all of my problem-solving attempts failed (virus scans, program cleanup, etc.), the harddrive completely died. And once that harddrive was dead and out of the way, my system was running like there was never anything wrong with it.

Now I feel dumb for not backing up my stuff when I first started noticing problems. Maybe your issues are due to a virus or spyware that can be cleaned up, but ...

BACK UP YOUR STUFF, MAN! TRY THIS IF YOU DON'T HAVE EXTRA HARDDRIVES LAYING AROUND: www.carbonite.com