Not Enough Free Memory

I am using an HP 7960 with a Windows Millinium upgrade. In the last few weeks, I have been getting an error of sorts that tells me I do not have enough free memory to run the program I am trying to run (say to print out a pic or go to another site such as hotmail from ebay) It says for me to close down other programs and try again. Trouble is the only way I can move from the existing site is to close EVERYTHING out, including disconnecting from my ISP and starting from my desktop. I have done the thorough scandisk and de-frag every weekend for the last 2 months, cleaned out my temp. files, cleaned out my recycle bin and checked to see how much space I still have on my hard-drive. I am only using 37%. I also recently changed my virus protection from McAffee to Norton, don't know if this matters or not. PLEASE HELP

 

Check your System Resources, and post the percent here:

RIGHT CLICK on the MY COMPUTER icon on the desktop, and choose PROPERTIES

Click on PERFORMANCE, and look for the second line down. It should say SYSTEM RESOURCES and have a percentage. Reboot the computer and before doing anything else, try this and then post. It should be around 80% or so after restarting.

If it is, there is a possibility that the file is too big. But, try the above first....

 

Thanks, I checked my resources just after reading your reply, and it showed "12%" free. I then re-booted my computer as instructed and checked it again without doing anything else and it showed a whopping "26%" free. If it should be at 80% where do I go to get rid of the clutter. I thought I had cleaned out everything unnecessary, leaving only the programs I had to have. All I have connected are a printer, scanner, and digital camera. WHAT DO I DO AND WHERE DO I GO TO DO IT.....PLEASE HELP

 

First, download and run SpyBot to check for Spyware, which if present, can devour resources.

Then, download and run HiJackThis and copy/paste the log that it creates, into a subsequent reply in this thread.

(If you wish, you can use this site to remove some of the obvious startups via MSCONFIG, before you post back the log)