Anytime I sit down at the PC and double click to open a desktop file (image, application, mp3, etc) it takes 8-10 seconds for the file to open. If it's an image in a folder on the desktop, the folder opens instantly but the first image inside takes the same 8-10 seconds. After that things are normal. The same file opens up instantly the second time, and any other desktop files are instant after the very first one. This seems to happen after the PC sits idle for a little while...as if it takes a few seconds to wake up. Of course, this has never happened before a couple of weeks ago. The only software added recently is Bit Defender after I removed Norton. I do believe the quirk was happening prior to Bit Defender. I've Googled this behavior to death and can't find anything. Any ideas, all you gurus out there??? It's a very frustrating little problem.

could just be regular kludge on the machine. When was the last time you defragged? Check that, if it needs it, do so, and then download ATF (all temp files) cleaner from majorgeeks.com and run that. That blows out all your temp files, so it's a handy little tool to keep around. If you keep stuff in a folder called 'temp', I would suggest renaming that folder, as it will be chucked as well.

Give that a shot, and let us know what happens.

thanks,

v