Please note I'm an intermediate user, at best. My Dell Inspiron 5000e laptop has somewhat suddenly become excessively slow to open its Windows 2000 Pro desktop. It takes several minutes. It has never been quick (Celeron chip) but it has slowed dramatically. Also recently, there were errors on IE and strange email - some of which I recognized as malicious. I ran Ad Aware, Spybot S&D and installed new Norton AV2004. Ad Aware and Spybot disclosed several problems which they repaired. Norton showed nothing as I recall. I have to wonder whether something bad remains. Separately, there are probably programs running in the background that may also contribute to a slow start. But I'm not sure about changing their settings so that they will still be there and work if need be. Again as an intermediate user, what basic signs should I be looking for? What are first steps toward diagnosing and repairing? Thanks much.
TS

Norton uses alot of disk time. but there isnt really much you can do for that. There could be alot of unwanted programs or services that are loading when you first boot up. I would suggest defragging your HDD, this might give you a small performance jump. another thing is to get rid of unwanted systems services and programs that boot up with your comp.

Does it take longer booting up while its displaying the windows 2000 logo or when you see the graphical windows??

Thanks. The HD is regularly defragged, cleaned, etc. I have begun Norton 2004 AV regularly; the prior version had not been updated in a very long time as there was no paid subscription or renewal for it. (I mistakenly thought that the host PC on my LAN detected intruders for both PCs.)

You mentioned unwanted systems and programs that boot with the PC. I don't know how to see what those are or change them. I'm concerned about inadvertently turning off something that I should leave in boot mode. Where do I look and how do I determine which types of programs and services are superflous?

Since this exaggerated slow motion start is a new behavior, I haven't observed its pattern long enough to realize the difference in boot time in displaying Win2000 logo and the "graphical windows" (desktop? graphical interface? are we talking about the same things? My observation is that all of the boot activity and process has slowed tremendously, but that it is probably taking longer to bring up the desktop than it is in displaying the Win2000 logo. I haven't timed it, but then I wouldn't know an exact benchmark time anyway.
Thanks
TS

This might help you: I recently upgraded from Norton AV 2002 to Norton AV 2004, and my typical bootup time went from power on to ready to roll in just under 35 seconds to ready to roll in 1.5 minutes. NAV 2004 takes FAR too long to finish loading, but since I've paid for it, I'm either stuck with it, or stuck paying for someone elses.

I'd guess NAV 2004 is your cause of extended boot times, and advise you to live with it, and look foreward to it expiring in a year so you can try another product. Hope this helps.

In terms of identifying running services, this site might give you a start:

http://www.blackviper.com/WIN2K/servicecfg.htm