I was hoping that some of you peeps could advise me.

I have to sort out my parents PC and my own home PC, which are P4s, but run at the speed of buff clay down a moist wall.

I think that it's due to viruses and stuff, accumulated over time from forays over the internet.

I've heard of applications such as XP medic. Are these any good? do you know of any that are better, and will save me taking them to some geyser who will nick all my bank details?

I am prepared to spend time looking at the problem and purchasing software but I don't know where is the best place to start with cleaning the two PCs up.

Any ideas?

Ta

it might be easier to give me a call when youre in front of the pc. i can connect in remotely and fix it all up over the net

linux mint

Easy installs itself, everything works out of the box (like mp3 playback, video codecs, flash player for firefox, java, OpenOffice etc...), it's free, it runs well on slower machines.

Also can run from disc as a liveCD, so you don't even need to install it if you want a fresh pc every time... or if you just want to trial it.

http://linuxmint.com

download link: http://www.linuxmint.com/mirrors.php?id=15

EDIT: I just realised I was logged in as rosie! Still I'm sure she'd say the same...

Would you believe I have exactly the same problem? But with Jyoti's PC. Thank you Badgerfest.

PS - Im logged in as Govind. But Im sure Jyoti will be appreciative of this forum feedback.

PPS - see what I did there?

There I was thinking that Rosie might have picked up a thing or two about computers from tart and the rest of us.

cheers ween, rosie (I mean dan), I'll try these and see what happens. If i turn it to a pile of steaming whatsit, i'll give you a call ween.