I am using windows 98, and take good care of my registry, and programs, including scans for viruses, worms, trojans, and adware.

The strangest thing happens and I can't find anyone that has had a similar problem and I'm decently savvy. When windows starts it stops for 15 minutes. Then on certain programs when I run them they take 10-15 minutes to load, and then run great.

The strange thing is is that when they are loading they arn't taking up memory or cpu power like my computer isn't strong enough cause it used to load just fine and quick they just stall in the loading process for 10-15 minutes, and than give up one whatever its stuck on and decide to load and run great as though nothing is wrong.

I imagine its a missing windows file or corrupt one but which one.
The following programs are examples:
Photoshop
Acrobat Reader
Illustrator
Flash
Dreamweaver
Cubase
winamp
media player
yahoo messenger

yet things like explorer, tv, outlook express work without a hitch any ideas?

Note: **A moderator will probably move this to the Win95/Win98/WinME section. Don't repost this, however. **

That's a tough one.

Have you installed any new programs recently that might be causing this?

I think it's hardware related. Possibly hard drive or RAM.

I've noticed when a HDD starts failing Windows and apps take forever to load up, but work fine when working with them.