Crap. Unfortunately, I configured System Restore to use as little hard drive space as possible, so all i've got is today's restore point. Never thought I'd need to use it. Lesson learned I guess. Am I out of luck?

So I ran windows update the other day and I left it to update while i went to work. It installed IE8 and .Net framework 3.5. I came back the next day and restarted and sat there and waited FOREVER for the start up routine to finish (antivirus, steam, rivatuner, etc). Normally this takes about 1-2 minutes from a cold boot, but this must have taken upwards of 5 minutes. However, once they finally got loaded there were no problems at all. I can open up Chrome and browse the internet at normal speeds but when I try to open up ANY programs (itunes, games, spybot, etc), my computer will sit there and do nothing (no hard drive spinning) for about 2-3 minutes and then the program opens up and functions just like it should. Weird.

I've run malware/spyware scans and virus scans but with no results. I've checked task manager and i'm using maybe 1gb of my 4gb of RAM and only 5% max of my CPU power. As you could probably guess, this is really frustrating. It's not a MAJOR problem as everything performs as it should (when it finally opens after 2-3 minutes), but it's just really annoying. Any ideas what's going on before I say Eff it and format?

Specs:
Windows XP 64-bit
Core 2 Quad Q6600
4GB RAM
Nvidia 8800GTS 512

I am looking to replace my 22" Hanns-G monitor. i bought it at the time cause the price was pretty good and had received plenty of good user reviews on newegg (i now know those are not be trusted. after about 6 months i got a big old red vertical line near the center. VERY distracting while gaming and just plain ugly. i'm looking to replace this Hanns-G with a new 22" or 24" and use the Hanns-G as a 2nd monitor.

I'm thinking of getting either an Acer, Samsung or a Viewsonic. I'm leaning more towards the Acer brand since they are more modestly priced and i've heard good things. Samsung's have a good picture quality but i have heard of some display problems. I wanted to ask some people before i made any decisions. What monitor do you all have and do you recommend it?

it's even worse when they come into forums and say crap like "i beat this game in 4 hours and i wasn't even trying." then when somebody else comes along and says that it took them 6 hours, the elite bastard will say cheap shot this guy later in the thread with something like "6 hours? wow you suck."

but it's more annoying online, yes.

sneak is probably one of the best skills in the game. it's really easy to level it up too. go into an occupied shop/house with a staircase. go to the top of the stairs, go into sneak mode and activate run/walk toggle. if the eye goes transparent, that means the person in the building cannot see you and your skill is increasing!

they might have fixed that tho, that was the way it was when i first played the game. kinda wish i didn't do that because it made the gameplay not as fun. sneak, stalk, strike from behind, win. formula got boring.