Whenever I open a .txt document or an image file, there's a delay of 4-5 seconds before it actually appears. By opening I mean double clicking it when its on the desktop, and the delay is from the moment i dclick to the file being displayed.

Are there any known fixes for this? Thanks

this could be to do with the hardware you have, it could be spyware or it could be nothing at all!
try running an ad-aware scan: http://www.lavasoft.com/