Diagnose Granny's Hardware (ISO nerdy boys)

[GrannyMae]

hiya,

when i close Netscape, Casino Programs and AOL at the end of the day (save the AOL criticism, i'm not changing isp's), it takes FOREVER for these processes to stop running and for me to have just a clean desktop. as they are all shutting down, i have hit the start button to get to the 'shut down' option. the start button does not appear until all of these processes are completely finished, then when i hit turn off the computer, it takes forever again for me to get the box that offers stand by, restart and turn off.

what is it that is so slow that is causing this?

the problem got worse 3 weeks ago when i installed a new AOL security edition that is a very large program which is running spy zapper and a firewall at same time. however, this PC also has a ton of mileage on it.

so, once i am in web pages like the forum etc and once i am in the casino places, everything runs fine at good speed. i have lost my speed in changing between programs and turning everything off.

is this caused by AOL having such a large program that it takes forever to cycle off? is it cuz my old machine is getting ready to blow? any ideas how to fix this? it literally takes 2 minutes for me to get the programs closed and turn the PC off.

ty ty