[JavaBrewer]

First place is to look under your Start->Programs->Startup folder and delete anything in there that you don't use. Not to worry as the items there are generally shortcuts to the actual programs. Next use the windows add/remove programs tool to remove ALL programs you don't use. Brand name PCs (Dell, HP, etc...) always have a ton of free/trial stuff already installed. Smoke all of it.

Are you saying the HD is full? How much empty space did it have when you first got the laptop? How much memory is installed and being used? My neighbor had a similar slow running PC and I found his kids installed software that launched at startup and consumed all the memory causing the OS to start swapping to the HD. Machine was unuseable in that state.