I have a turn-of-the-century Gateway PC with Windows XP, SP3, 768MB of RAM and a 1.3Ghz Pentium 4. It boots up without any problems, but its very slow to launch programs (Word, Excel, etc.). I have to let it idle for about 20 minutes before launching any programs. I scanned the hard drive for viruses and errors. I defragmented it. I used the disc cleanup utility. I used MSCONFIG utility to see if any programs are running in the background (besides my Avast A/V software). Still, I have the same problem. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions?