One of the biggest killers of XP is the realsched auto program that tries to auto-update the Real Player. If you try to disable it, it will re-enable. Crashes XP and uses extraordinary resources. The only way to get rid of it and still keep the Real Player working is to edit the files in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Real\Update_OB\ and edit all the exe and dll filenames so the system can't execute them.
I use the following convention:
"realsched.exe.disable" then set them to read only.
Now you can disable it in msconfig auto tab and it will not come back until you manually upgrade the player. Then you have to go through all that again.
This is just one of hundreds of malware problems common to most people along with Kazza, Bargan Buddy, etc...
The freeware programs for cleaning spyware (adaware, etc.) are worse than the programs they are written to remove and don't remove even half of the reallly bad ones. Some programs that seem totally inocent like Weather Channel are spyware loaders. There are many programs that do that. They aren't spies themselves, but install other programs that are. Best to get a commercial spy remover.
-Pv-
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