Windows Not Responding. . .Why the Hell Not?

I'm presently working on reconstructing a neighbor's infected computer, something I do from time to time. She'd unwittingly installed an "anti-virus" program which is really a scam. Insidious bugger too, tangling its feelers into all sorts of places on the computer (it's called "Personal Antivirus" just in case you ever run across it. DO NOT install it, it is garbage).

But this sort of challenge has always been fun for me, so that is not what is bugging me. The neighbor's computer is a Windows XP system, and I'm very comfortable with that. The computer I'm using at the moment is a Windows Vista Home Basic system, and my desktop computer in the other room uses Windows Vista Home Premium. Unlike many users, I really don't have much of a problem with Vista, short of a relative lack of familiarity with it, as opposed to XP or Windows 95/98/Me.

But there is one maddening element of Vista that drives me to distraction. I usually run Internet Explorer and America Online at the same time, and use them in tandem (probably much to the horror of FireFox, Mac and Linux users). I run the blog and its attendant services in IE, and do all of my reading and research in AOL. This works out great, until it doesn't. I'll ALT+TAB over to AOL from IE, and I'll get that shiny blue spinning "O" cursor, which is a replacement for the spinning hourglass. This may go on for many seconds, and out of frustration I'll click the mouse. At this point, the screen fades to white, like a fog has descended over Windows-land.

Even though this happens with some frequency, I'll try to go back to the other program. But ALT+TABBING either doesn't work, or it works in a molassessy time warp. Occasionally, if the ALT+TAB brings up the "open programs" window, it will be slightly out of focus, and frozen in place. Moving the mouse down to the toolbar only changes the cursor from the "O" to a double-edged arrow, as though it is trying to resize the toolbar. This can go on for 30, 45, even 60 seconds before the system starts to respond. And there is no consistent pattern for when it happens, and I have no idea why it happens. Always, there is a message in the title bar: "Not Responding." And my unanswered question is still: "Why the hell NOT?"

I'd chalk it up to the weak Celeron chip in my notebook computer, were it not for the fact that my desktop does this too, and it has a Core 2 Duo in it. I'm willing to concede that it might be AOL, which has always had a disturbing ability to disrupt the multi-tasking abilities of any computer. I suppose it could also be Internet Explorer 8, or maybe the interplay between the two programs. Unfortunately for me, I've grown quite set in my ways, and will likely continue with this setup, despite the frustration. But I'd still like to know what the hell my computer is actually doing when it gets stuck in one of those loops.