M1330 IE7 Browser problems..Help!!

M1330 LED backlit LCD
core 2 duo t7250 @2.00 GHZ
3 gigs RAM
Vista home premium 32 bit
windows experience of 4.1 (graphics card n vidia )


Well, for some reason, the other day when I clicked on the IE Icon on the desktop, the window would open to full size and then immediately close out.I could not keep the window open.

My apple Safari browser will work normally however. I thought malware or virus, but It continued to do this even after running spyware doctor, McAfee, ad-awatch and windows defender.

Finally I was able to run IE browser only if I disabled all browser add-ons . Then I re-enabled them one at a time, and the culprit seems to be McAfee Site Advisor Toolbar. If I leave this disabled, it seems to work ok but it still seems a little slow. Any reason why this happens? Also wondering if I should disable some of the other add-ons or are they there as a necessity?

Aslo 1 other question my computer seems much more troublesome than when new (slow to boot, hangs up etc). Of course I now have 15 gigs in I- tunes,a lot of pics and many more programs running than when new . I have 98 processes running in task manager right now . I also have probably too many security programs: I Have Mcafee, Windows Defender, Adaware with Adwatch, PC Tools Spyware Doctor, and Reg Defense by Xionix should I uninstall some of this junk, or is it ok to have so many?

Sorry for all the questions, but need some of your expertise.

Thanks in advance

 

I'm assuming you're probably using the factory installation? Even on an XPS, I think the factory install is pretty bloated; the best thing would have been to do a clean install after you got it. That being said, you can generally un-install most of that junk without harming your system; a lot of it can do more harm than good (as you may have seen).

I'd say just sack everything you don't use.

 

Commander Wolf....Actually the computer was pretty bloatware free until I got hold of it LOL.

I Installed: the Ad-Aware, Spyware doctor,Reg defense,I Tunes with Safari and Quicktime, Google Earth, AT & T communications manager (broadband Card), Realplayer, Garmin GPS update software, Creative soundblaster XI FI, Maxtor Mini 4 external hard-drive software for backups, and probably one of the biggest POS sownloads was the HP all in one software for my printer. As soon as it was loaded, I could see it slowed down the boot time

In addition to the above of course it came with: McAfee, Roxio, Windows Media Player,Google Desktop, media direct, fingerprint reader software, and all the dell support stuff.

All in all a lot of stuff for such a small computer, that also leaves the potential for conflicts between software I would guess

Can I uninstall Safari and quicktime without affecting I Tunes?
should I delete spyware doctor? My concern now is that I might delete something that screws up another program.

Suggestions would be a great help