For the past couple of days, my computer has been really struggling and chugging through the simplest of programs. It will take quite a few seconds to load internet explorer or even open the start menu and there is a constant use of the Hard Drive, even when the system isn't being used. I'm not sure exactly what caused the problem because I installed a few programs on that day then the problems started happening. I attempted to system restore to the day before but the sluggishness persisted. I also attempted a disk cleanup and a defragment but niether of them seemed to help. I ran ad aware and spybot and still nothing. I think that the problem has something to do with my PF Usage. The computer will be chugging along with the CPU usage at 2 or 3% while the page file usage is pushing 800Mb. What do I do?

You will have to set up a better tests using performance monitor, event viewer and event viewer.

start by defragging your hd and running scandisk. you don't mention how much disk space used vs available.