Weird Vista issues

[Larry Flyntz]

So, I'm having this problem where when I try to move something from my desktop to a folder on my desktop or delete something, it takes like 30 seconds and slows everything down.  I also have this problem where all of my program shortcuts in my start menu just disappeared.  The programs are still installed and everything, but the shortcuts are all gone.  Any ideas on what's going on?  These aren't huge issues, but they're pretty annoying.

[Violent Unrest in Allentown]

1. Restart.
2. Scan with an Antivirus client. If you don't have one, download AVG, install it and update it. Then scan your machine. If it doesn't find anything, restart, then scan again. If it doesn't find anything still, boot into safe mode and scan again.
3. Download Spybot S&D, update it and scan.

Some quick Googling makes it seem like you have some malicious software on your computer.

[Larry Flyntz]

Alright, I tried all that, and the problem still exists.  Rats. 

[TemporalRift]

The most likely situation is something (Probably malware that's hiding itself pretty well) is running in the backround and eating up your resources.

What you could do is start Task Manager (Ctrl-Alt-Del, Start Task Manager) and go to the processes tab, and expand it out as far as you can to take a screenshot, ideally so all of the rows are fully exposed so we can take a look at it. If you hit the Show Processes From All Users button a ton more'll come up and you'll probably have to take multiple shots, but it would be more info. I don't know if Vista malware can hide in other accounts, and there's no guarantee the geeks here could actually pick out which one of the random and odd process names is malware, but it's worth a shot.

Another much easier thing to try first is start Vista in Safe Mode With Networking, and run your spyware programs again.

[Larry Flyntz]