Upgrade from XP to Windows 7 - Problems !!

Dell Inspiron 630m laptop. Converted to Windows 7 Home Premium SP 1 32 bit, from XP. Ram 512 MB; Disk C -41.6GB free of 55.7GB.
Things worked reasonably well since I received the laptop 5 days ago. Yesterday I added more progs. but found things began to slow down considerably, and causing programs and browsers to freeze. In the last 30 mins. I have removed IO Bit programs, and it seems that the laptop is beginning to quicken up.
I now have only 11 progs installed C Cleaner; Glary Utilities; Crypto Prevent; Intel Wireless software; Mozilla +Maintenance;TalkTalk SuperSafe Boost.
Is it a case that too many programs WILL slow things down considerably?

Also, in the last 5 days there have been 192(yes, 192) Microsoft updates installed. Is this the norm ?

Hoping someone can give advice and guidance re this 7 laptop, as I am finding it slower than my Windows Vista, and also slower than a 2nd hand Windows XP laptop, which I also use.

MoxieMomma, Thanks for that information. I will wait for others to come in, hopefully. I did not upgrade the laptop myself. It was done by a local IT firm, and given to me free. Basically, I will only be using it for browsing the web.

You really need a minimum of 1 Gig of RAM with 2 being better for Win-7 32 Bit. Your list of utilities is also important. Did you completely remove ALL of the IOBit programs, registry entries and the folders? If not then that needs tended to. You do not need the Firefox Maintenance Service so uninstall it. I have no idea what TalkTalk is and would advise removing it as well. If you want to have it available then uninstall Glary but keep the setup file. You will find that running CCleaner and its companion DeFraggler are usually all one needs to maintain a machine. The caveat here is that you NEVER use a defrag program with an SSD drive.
Last thing - If you are so inclined an SSD will improve performance a lot. This an the added memory will keep the machine happy for some time.
Finally: The 192 Updates are normal and there will be many more, including this weeks offerings. BE VERY CAREFUL as you may find several that should NEVER be allowed as to Windows 10 and a Microsoft desire to do Diagnostics and Telemetry.
Others will offer their input - this is my experience with a lot of years in IT tech support.

Yes to everything said. I would NEVER touch anything iobit. Ever. I used two optimizers on a regular basis - ccleaner and auslogics defrag. Go to services.msc and make sure there's no resident iobit service hiding there. They're good at that. Then go to ccleaner / tools / startup and get rid of a lot of autoruns. Set Windows updates to install weekly, on Wednesday.

Netbooks run win7 on 1gb of ram and 1.6ghz of cpu, so it's possible. Going to 2gb makes a huge difference.

7am here, and logged on to see if any replies and guidance. Thanks all. I do not have time at the moment to sit and digest all your points, so I will close and return later today to implement your advice. Query re TalkTalk - it is my telephone and ISP, they also provide security- "Super Safe Boost" which has anti-virus, etc.
Thanks will get back later today.

SSB is made by F-Secure, which has been around a long time. But these ISP packages typically are monstrosities regarding resource usage, and this alone can put a weak system in the tank. They are marketing toward the user who knows only how to press the On button. Do a web search for 'SSB slow' and see what you find. Many here like MSE, but I prefer Panda Free.

I'd shoot over to Blackvipers website, have a look at what he recommends to turn/off dissable.
DO not use the bare bones settings.

can you also screenshot your start-up and services from
ControlPanal>admintools>SystemConfig>services(tick hide microsoft) and Startup

Roy