Is reformatting your computer a better option than un-installing programs?

My computer used to turn on and off in a matter of seconds. It now takes a little more than 5 minutes. I have Norton Antivirus 07 and I have already defragmented, done disk clean-up and deleted unecessary files on my computer. I also tried to download spyware from www.download.com but that hasn't done too much. What other things can I do to increase my computer's speed? I have a 2004 HP

Is reformatting your computer a better option than un-installing programs?virus protection software

Reformatting will definitely solve your problem, but be aware it will take everything with it! Slow bootup is the result of the workload that's been progressively added, like startup programs, programs "phoning home" for updates (Norton, Adobe Reader, and gobs of others), IM clients signing on, Yahoo and Google toolbars doing their thing, scanning for viruses or adware during the bootup sequence rather than later.

Take a look at the processes running that is shown in task manager. Identify each. In your Start directory (Start..Programs..Startup), what's there? Why? (I have none). In addition to this, are you sure you purged all cookies and "temporary internet files" from within IE? Then with Windows Explorer, purge the contents of the temp directory in "Documents and Settings... ...Local Settings"