SP1 & 2 made things much slower

In order to upgrade my IE browser I was told I must upgrade to Service Pack 1 and 2.
Did that.
Computer operated so sluggishly after that I got a tip that Virus Protection software might be causing the problem.
So sure enough I put my Kaspersky offline and things sped up to about pre SP1&2days.
Now what? If I want to have Kaspersky effective again?
Still haven't upgraded to new Explorer.
Any ideas?
Dell Vostro 1500 32 bit
RAM 2 GB
Vista Business

Welcome
Many people have a problem similar to yours, their Anti Virus slows the computer. We give them all the same advice and they are all happy that they took it.
First call your anti virus company and explain the problem, if they cannot help
Make a system restore point
Then uninstall your Anti Virus and install Microsoft Security Essentials, it is made for Windows and will work as it should.
Do not get tied to an anti virus that is not doing the job. Yes, I know you paid for it and might even like it, but go with one that will work without problem.
If you do take my advice, also, download the free Malwarebytes, it works great with Essentials and it, too, is free. You will now have a computer that is safe as many of the senior members here that use Essentials, like myself, and are very happy.

Also you can use either an external drive or a docking station with an internal drive inserted, to hold an image of your current system. Another alternative to running AV in "real time mode" is to use something like Returnil that makes a copy of your system using Shadow Copy service. No protection is perfect. But operating at half speed is already broken.

edit: there are several excellent free backup image programs. Many here use Macrium Reflect or EaseUS ToDo Backup. Also see thefreecountry.com: Free Programmers' Resources, Free Webmasters' Resources, Free Security Resources for more free backup and disk cloning programs.

Hey thanks for the tips.....will report back on my progress.
Dick

Also after installing sp2 you should run
compcln.exe
it is in windows system32
typing it into the start search box should find it