My computer is being real laggy

Okay. So my computer is being really lagging and taking forever to load. And the cursor stalls and drags across the screen.

Fix?

1. Clean out the mouse.
2. Clean the mouse pad.
3. Run a registry cleaner (Ccleaner is recommended)
4. Run a virus scan through a virus scanner with a large database. AVG, Avira..google.
5. Cleaning out the dust inside might help.

^Like He said, clean the stuff, or consider a new mouse/new mouse pad. If you're a gamer and have been eying some gaming mouse/keyboard for a long time, now's your chance. (Just for the record, SteelSeries has the best stuff.)

Check up on what programs are running in the background, and try closing them. These include instant messengers (AIM, ICQ, GTalk, XFire, MSN Messenger, ETC), Torrent Programs such as MuTorrent, and usually AntiVirus.

Lots of those programs run when you start the computer, so go in the options and shut that off. Those put a significant drag on boot time.

Also, running too many applications at a time, like having three firefox windows (not tabs) open or having an emulator, maplestory and firefox running, or any number of applications usually isn't smart.

Run CCleaner and AVG (Google them.) Run Windows Defender (which came with your PC). Run Windows Updater.

If all else fails, you've got two options:

-Buy More Ram or a better processor

or

-Re-Install the OS/Upgrade/Downgrade. If you're changing the OS do NOT change to Vista, try XP. But if you already have vista then it's ok to keep it.

Also, are you on a laptop, a netbook (mini-laptop), or a Desktop?

How much space is free left on the harddrive? it may be time for some spring cleaning

My dear girl, sometimes your strange gender gets into the internet too much and downloads so much junk into the temporary folder it makes the other junk in your trunk look like a scrap of dust bunnies inside a Texas Enhanced Bill Gates Mansion.

So what I recommend is getting a system cleaner of some sort, like the System Mechanic from Iolo. That one works like a charm even in the free version.

Or get your dad to buy an extra Truckload of RAM. If you mess up with 2GB then oh my....

Maybe your mouse settings are turned down? Control Panel --> Mouse --> Pointer Options; adjust pointer speed until it feels right and click OK.

I'm assuming that you have XP, because it seems to get more run down like that. The XP registry corrupts easily, so I'd suggest you take the above advice and get a registry cleaner as well as doing a Virus Scan. I'm not sure if anyone's mentioned Defragmenting yet, but Start>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Defrag can't hurt if you're able to leave it defragging for 1-2 hours.

Just out of curiosity, it's worth checking Control Panel>Mouse and Pointers>Pointer: Show cursor trail. If I remember the path right and make sure it's not set to show your cursor trail, which make it look laggy.

Sometimes you need to do a reinstall of XP. Over time, the installation becomes a mess and you'll never get it quite right. If you know what you're doing, it's worth a try, but don't otherwise. Just stick with the tools mentioned above.