I used Windows ME. For no apparent reason, My shortcuts (ctrl-alt-E to
load explorer) have become very slow.. After I hit the shortcut, there
is about a 2 second delay. All shortcuts worked fine on my computer
for a year.. then suddenly this slow down. It seems to have started
after I added a network hub and laptop to computer

If you wonder, I have used the microsoft knowledge base and tried the
one suggestion they have (concerning editing your registery file
concerning networks)

How many / what type of shortcuts do you have?

Have you tried recreating the shortcuts?

Have you tried unplugging the hub?

Did you load drivers when you installed the hub?


-AI

I use alot of shortcuts.. recreating them does not help.. tried that.. 

didn't load driver when installing hub.. windows automatically did that..
unplugging the hub does not work/i have to keep it plugged anyway

billy post the question here http://www.computingcentral.msn.com/AllMessageBoards/

First of all, Windows ME is known as the worst windows ever released
by Microsoft.  The entire infratructure is unstable and thrown
together.  Windows XP has a dramatically different and improved system
level infrastructure that is built on the same technology as Windows
NT and windows 2000.  The most obvious improvement is protected memory
which dramatically dramatically improves stability.
  The problem of "general slowing" has been predominant in many
versions of windows and is due to general degredation of the quality
of system files loaded.  There are many causes of this.
   The reason I have told you all this is because Internet Explorer is
throughly tied into the Operating System..and most problems related to
the browser, (most specifically the problem you are describing of
slowing), will be a system wide problem and not just in the browser.
----------
   Internet Explorer uses the file system to load bookmarks.  Your
whole file system is slow and everything is running slower.
----------
   Back up your files, format your machine, and migrate to Windows XP
... is my honest advice.  If you are worried about losing files, the
Windows XP upgrade is the easiest and most comprensive of any upgrade
of the OS from Microsoft yet.  I do this commonly for people
throughout the LA area, and have dozens of satisfied customers.  I
have found no major problems, or even minor problems with Windows XP. 
Windows ME sucks.
   And just for the records, even though I see no problems in Windows
XP, I do think there are ways the OS can be improved for a better user
experience.

Have you recently installed Popup killer?  There is an option in there
under the general tab. To disable shortcut keys.  Basically it is used
to stop PUK from going into idle mode when you use shortcut keys, but
I have found that it indeed slows down my shortcuts.  I 'checked' the
option and have not had problems since.