Question : Very slow operation of Win XP once connected to SBS 2003 on network

I'm a newbie to IT problems...so please be gentle ;-)

I have a very small office network that has the following systems on it:
SBS 2003 SP2
Windows XP SP2 desktop
Windows XP Tablet laptop

I am using roaming profiles and have redirected them to a file share on the server (used to use Offline Files, but no longer)
I have redirected my folders to a different file share on the server (also uses Offline Files)
I used to have two Mapped drives as part of my profile that loaded in the logon script (which I have now deleted from the script)

The problem(s) are that I have been having long term troubles with the performance of my two machines, especially at logon.

They are both terribly slow logging on.  They are both terribly slow logging off.

The laptop has just been reinstalled and things were looking up...until I registered the computer on the SBS, presto the problems came back with a vengence!  The laptop's now practically unusable due to the slow speed of even the most basic programs once the logon has finally been processed.

The cursor jumps around as it moves (slow processing, I believe), during normal usage, windows take a long time to become active when selected, the task bar at the bottom is inaccessible for up to 10 mins during logon (with an hour-glass for a cursor when hovering over it).

Additionally, explorer.exe has also previously consumed up to 100% of my CPU time.

I have looked at a number of different solutions already on the website, but I have not had any luck trying to sort it out.

I have tried a number of different spy/adware removal tools and have McAfee Enterprise anti-virus installed.

I would dearly love to find a solution to this problem and allow my computers to run as happily as I know they want to...so please help.

Answer : Very slow operation of Win XP once connected to SBS 2003 on network

I'm fairly certain that having the Application Data Folder redirected can cause such problems... I've tried doing that before only to find that it makes a complete mess of things.

If stopping the Application Data redirection doesn't resolve your problem, then read on...

"trying to work my way through the services and start up programs in the ipconfig setup to see if it's one of them..."

Do you mean in msconfig.exe?  If so, you should just check the box to hide all Microsoft services and disable all the non-Microsoft services, reboot and see if that solves the problem.  If it does, you then re-enable them one at a time to find out which one is causing the problem.

Jeff
TechSoEasy