Is your anti-virus the culprit?
As an ACT! Certified Consultant, you become thick skinned to the comment, “ACT! has really slowed down my machine.” Or, “Since I loaded ACT!. . . “. In most cases, it’s someone else in the sandbox, like your anti-virus software, picking on ACT!, poor little thing!
Most anti-virus software allows you to define an exclusion list. Basically, this is a list of “safe” programs. By defining exclusions, you’re teaching your anti-virus which programs to leave alone. Otherwise, your anti-virus software may busy itself protecting you against a program you are using. That translates into system slow-down. Here is a handy KB article: http://bit.ly/i775Md. It contains links to the most popular anti-virus packages and settings that add ACT! as a safe program.