Vista slow for no discernable reason?

Ok, we've had this new PC for about a year or so now. The reason we got a new comp is because our old XP one only had 256 ram and was riddled with "junk" all thanks to my brothers >_>

Anyway this new one is just as slow if not slower and I can't figure out why. Here are the specs (just copying the system information here):

Dell Inspiron 530

Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 420 @1.60GHz 1.60GHz

1013MB RAM

32bit Operating System. Vista (Home Basic)

Hope you guys can make more sense of that than I can.

I've checked that nothing hidden is eating up the CPU and as far as I can see its ok. So basically Im thinking I should up the memory to 2GB right? Would there definitely be an improvement if I did? Cos it wouldn't be my money getting spent on additional RAM.

Sorry to ask such stupid questions but my family think I'm supposed to be some sort of tech wizard, it was me who persauded them to get a new PC saying it would be faster and I feel pretty bad that its just as crap as the old one

Thanks in advance.

 

G'day Pench,
Who hasn't suffered from this occasionally?! Before you try anything too daring, give this app a try, it will do no harm, and has sorted out my Acer/Vista nicely.

http://www.download.com/Advanced-Wi...-AdvancedW&subj=uo&tag=button&cdlPid=10890240

DO NOT use the green "Download here" button - that's something else. Use "Download now (6.24MB)" link. You will be surprised at the errors you'll find. AWC v2 will clean them up pronto. If in the unlikely event something weird happens (it won't) you can restore within the application.

If you still have problems,more basic trouble shooting might be needed, but this is a good start. (No, I am not affiliated with these people!)

Good luck

 

I forgot to mention that AWC v2 is FREEWARE.

As well you might like to consider defragging the hard drive (Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Defragmenter), and also clearing Windows temporary files out (Disk Cleanup).