My desktop is running ever so much better since I installed and ran Ad Aware Personal SE (at least something good came of the whole "Strikeout 2007" mess - I got rid of some spyware!). It actually shuts down all the way now. Yay!
Now all we need to do is get our cranky cobbled-together P2 desktop to work better, and we're all set. Maybe I'll try running the spyware-detecting program on it....