Getting a "hijackthis" scan, and posting to one of the forums where they are expert in analyzing, may also be worth a shot.

PS. I like a good bit of freeware, but I'm rather nervous of things that look too "corporate" to be "nice guy" freeware and have no obvious ways of payback, though other than one possible false alarm at http://www.siteadvisor.com , the wise stuff seems to be getting a clean bill of health.

Possibly. If the problem was being caused by invalid registry entries. The most common reason for unexplained poor performance is spyware. Before trying to clean the registry, I would scan your pc with an up to date install of "spybot search and destroy", and install "spyware blaster".

Only after cleaning your pc for spyware might I consider registry cleaning. The miracle benefits from registry cleaning are almost always overstated.

would a registery cleaner help with a lagging computer?

Re: "Whichever reg cleaner you use,..."

I knew you would be covered, Lee. I should have made it clear that my post was directed at those people reading your post (those who may say, "Ooh, a registry cleaner,..what's that? I might try it").

I always have an image ready for restore if I run into any problems, thats the reason why a good external USB Hard Disk is a premium.

Whichever reg cleaner you use, if it does not perform a FULL reg backup prior to cleaning, then use this tool first - use it anyhow, as a precaution.

"ERUNT (Emergency Recovery Utility NT) allows you to keep a complete backup of your registry and restore it when needed. The standard registry backup options that come with Windows back up most of the registry but not all of it. ERUNT however creates a complete backup set, including the Security hive and user related sections. ERUNT is easy to use and since it creates a full backup, there are no options or choices other than to select the location of the backup files. The backup set includes a small executable that will launch the registry restore if needed."

Erunt Registry Backup:
http://www.snapfiles.com/opinions/ERUNT/ERUNT.html

Found this posted today from another site.

Wise Registry Cleaner is one of the safest Registry cleaning tools available in the market today. Wise Registry Cleaner scans the Windows registry and finds incorrect or obsolete information in the registry. By fixing these obsolete information in Windows registry, your system will can work better and more quickly. After Wise Registry Cleaner analyzes your system for problems, you can individually view each of the problems found and call up a detailed description. If you wish, you can also have all problems corrected automatically. All changes to your system are monitored by Wise Registry Cleaner and can be undone with a few mouse clicks, so you can use Wise Registry Cleaner feel relieved. It is strongly recommended to back up your data before using Wise Registry Cleaner !

This also goes for wise disk cleaner.

Current versions are wise registry cleaner v1.9 & wise disk cleaner v1.8

You can find out more information and download links here: http://www.wisecleaner.com/

GUI is nice also.

Remember always make a backup before installing and using these applications.