(winXP Pro; OE 6.0; IE 6.0; Dell Dimension XPS T450MHz Pentium III; Symantec AV Corp. Edition; spybot S&D; ad-aware; spyware blaster)

Since about a year or so my entire computer is progressively slowing down - no matter where or how I click to the extent that what took only seconds now takes MINUTES! True, my computer is about 6 years old but I take good care of it, including frequent anti virus, anti spy, anti ads, etc. and have no pets or children. Before spending good money, and search time from among oceans of diff. types, is there a way I can find out whether this extreme slowness is due to old age? Or something wrong with my registry (which I never touched for fear)? Or I may have accidentally deleted a system file?

My servers made a speed test and told me as far as THEY are concerned, it's fine. Is there any other tests I could take? which ones and where?

Thanks ever SO very much for any help in uncovering this puzzle!

Adela, NYC

P.S. How can I backup my registry into a zip100 disk? I have a bunch of good guides to backup OE and other applications, which I'll do soon, but don't know whether it will also include the registry. Thanks.