Shouldn't you be able to do a System Restore and go back to before the updates were added?

A friend gave me this pc last year and it was great, and yes it should, however when I went to do a restore, oh joy what do I find? the system restore has been disabled. NO! checkpoints, nore can I restore it from factory. ( for whatever reason) so yeah, unhappy day for me...

Ouch. I'm pretty sure there's a way you can uninstall certain updates manually. I think if you go to Windows Update, there should be something on the side that will allow you to see what updates you have installed and when. You should have the option to uninstall them.

oh no not you too D:

my brother had the same bother on his computer :o

go to control panel and see if there are any programs that you dont remember having. They can get in from downloading other things, without you knowing. Sometimes those can bug up updates

Has the system been fully rebooted since said update?

Other than that, Gale's suggestion is a good one. I know I have spotted "programs" that I had no idea what they were for. Or some sort of "tool bar" - Ugh! Uninstall those for sure!

Now if it was a Windows Update thingy, see if you can find the most recently added one(s) located at:

Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features > Installed Updates (This is a text link on the left side of the P&F page)

maybe if you uninstall the bugged up program it will speed up again

Press ALT-CTRL-DEL, select Task Manager depending of your Windows, and click the "Process" tab. Check if there is any process hoarding the CPU. Check also for network activity in the "Network" tab to check if there is any app downloading.

Meanwhile, you can always download this CD image and burn it to a blank CD. There is a copy of Mini Windows XP that could allow you to use your computer without the need of your hard drive and you could also do backups with the tools included.
http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/

In the worse case, you could ask a computer savvy friend to take control of your computer remotely to help debug your computer.
http://www.teamviewer.com

I hope you get it figured out and fixed without too much headache

Try to install AdwCleaner : http://download.cnet.com/AdwCleaner.....-75851221.html

This little software removes all the adwares and other malwares which pollutes your system. :) After install, press 'Scan', then 'Clean', reboot and see if it's better.

I've removed many useless and harmful programs, ditched google chrome and now using firfox. I'm MUCH faster now, however skype still isn't working. very weird.

If you use version 6.11, try uninstalling it and then revert back to version #

http://download.skype.com/msi/Skype....._6.9.0.106.msi

After installing that version, disable the Automatic updates:

Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Automatic updates ->Turn off automatic