'My Computer" display takes 2 minutes to display

It's a pretty vanilla Sony P4 XP/PRO with a couple printers and a web cam. I
use Verizon FIOS Internet and have a wireless router that a laptop connects
to for Internet access. The laptop works fine. This problem may have
started with FIOS installation; I noticed it after FIOS was installed and
talked to Verizon support about that and a couple other issues. They said it
could not be FIOS. It was taking 5 - 10 minutes to shut down Windows and
also the start up, and I had a problem that Automatic Update for
Microsoft/Windows would not work, nor could I connect to the MS Update site.
With some selective startup exercises using msconfig, I figured out that if I
didn't start up Automatic Update, it ran pretty well. With some info from a
MS knowledge base, I got Automatic Update to work.

So, this issue is still hanging around. I have noticed a couple other
"systems things" that just seem to sit with no disk activity for a couple
minutes and then work OK. It's exasperating but just takes patience. I may
just wait for a while and try to upgrade to Vista in a few months, once it is
shaken out a little more. I thought about reinstalling XP, but am not sure I
want to tackle that.

I have another issue where I need some help. This PC has a 115GB drive
configured C: 15 GB, D: 100GB. I moved all of my application stuff to the
D drive to free up space on C. Now, C has basically Windows and Program
Files, and is about 80% full. Can I move Program FIles to D and not screw
things up? I run a Pitstop utility to analyze the PC and it tells me to free
up some C space, but I'm not sure what I can safely move to D.

Thanks for any help.
;~)