Folders Slow To Open

Hi, new to this forum.

I've searched through the site trying to solve the problem of slow opening folders and have tried a number of the suggestions, but the problem remains.

Last weekend my laptop (which runs Vista Home Premium 32bit) crashed and I had to reformat and reinstall everything. I also reinstalled my usual external programs like GOM player, Winamp, etc, and at first everything was fine. But in the last few days the folders have slowed right down. In fact they do not completely load and if I try and open a folder within a folder, such as a music or video file I have in the downloads folder, I get a blank, all white pop up folder then windows explorer freezes completely and I cannot access any other program or even the start menu to restart and have to manually turn off the pc with the button above the keyboard. Also the rest of my pc is affected: internet cuts in and out (such as the link to internet radio or youtube) and when I play music files on Winamp, it suddenly pauses, then restarts.

I've uninstalled the external programs to see if that was the cause, but the problem remains.

I've run a scan but everything appears to be fine.

Help!

Welcome
I see that you said that you thought about other programs being the cause, but bare with me. Lets be methodical and get this solved. Start with a clean boot to make sure that I can exclude that as a cause.
How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista or in Windows 7

If you pass the above, make a full and updated anti virus scan
Download and run a full malwarebytes, updated scan
Download TFC. you will lose your cookies (which will eventually be replaced) so make sure that you know all of your IDs and passwords, for your favorite sites.
http://download.cnet.com/Temp-File-Cleaner/3000-2094_4-10628816.html