"Alan has MANY toolbars going on ON THE TOP OF THE SCREEN."

Is it actual toolbars or a bunch of icons???
and are they on the desktop of the computer -or when he is online- the browser toolbars?

One thing that does slow down computers is having many things showing in the lower right taskbar. ( unless you moved the taskbar to the top or sides)

the taskbar is where the time, date etc usually shows.

a nice video about cleaning up desktop-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOnu-fzt1W0


My FF on Linux laptop and desktop both load up faster than what you are describing. - only slows down when my AV is updating.

How much RAM you have can make a difference too. I have 2.5 G now on the desktop.

But if you have a lot of little icons showing in the taskbar - those are all things that are running - and those are using system resources.

If so you'll have to check into them and see if they are something that is really needed all the time or can be removed from the start up section - meaning it starts up every time you start windows.