Since the spyware removal thing, it seems like it takes forever even to boot up. I suspect this may be due to AVG (it was recommended), but I'm not sure.
Prior to this, gmail occasionally seizes and a Visual Studio Debugging window pops up which, when clicked away, closes all IE browsers. I haven't noticed if this happens with Firefox. I do have a visual studio installation on this machine for development purposes.
Any info would be helpful, especially about what processes should be running, when.