This afternoon, it suddenly slowed down DRASTICALLY.  I can type ahead several characters before Netscape displays them.  Other programs (including even the OS) also respond MUCH slower, with a half-second pause between hitting ALT-TAB (to switch windows) and the little selector window showing up in the middle of the screen.

Note that the typing pauses are erratic.  Although visibly slower to respond all the time, sometimes it pauses for a second or more before it will update.

Also, although I'm mentioning the browser specifically (since that's what I'm using at the moment) the slowdown is NOT related to it -- it's happening for everything I run on the machine, including when just the OS (Win95OSR2) is running.

Rebooting didn't solve it.  Nothing strange shows up in the "Close Program" dialog box.

Any ideas?  Please, no "get a new computer" suggestions -- I'm wondering if the machine has been infected with a virus or something, the machine is normally just fine.

Many thanks in advance for any information.

Open up MSCONFIG by going to RUN in the START menu.  go to the Startup tab, that will show you everything that's running when your system boots.  Uncheck everything but Systray and Explorer.  Reboot.  

If you're still getting sluggish performance, do a thorough scandisk and Defrag.  Empty your recycle bin and run Disk Cleanup first.

(Twust me... I'm a technical support rep at the largest computer manf. in the country)

BTW, if you're still running 95OSR2, have you ever completely reinstalled the OS?  IT professionals like to do that every 6 to 12 months.  If you've been using the same load for a couple years, your registry is probably so muddled up, your performance isn't likely to get much better.  

If your computer can handle it, I'd suggest, in the future, format your drive and install either Windows 2000 or XP.  They'll run better for ya, almost guaranteed

Thanks;  I'll do that in a minute.  Performance came back up to normal after a second reboot.  Something appears to have changed on the machine (may have been what started the whole problem), since the printer is no longer printing and the printer driver is behaving differently (showing up as a little icon in the lower-right toolbar area, with the other mini-icons).

I'll be building a new machine in a few months, and plan on getting XP for it.  I don't like the idea, but Win95 is definitely getting to the end of its useful life.

Thanks for the help!