- Joined
- Aug 16, 2020
If you run task manager and it has inexplicable high disk usage then try disabling superfetch (renamed to SysMain) which can result in insane paging and hammer your hard drive, bogging down the entire system. If your disk usage isn't listed as like 90%-100% when things are going slow, don't worry about this.
www.howtogeek.com
Get a flash drive or external drive and back up all of your files before you start seriously messing with things. Just copying and pasting is sufficient and 250GB is not that expensive to buy if needed, especially if you're afraid to lose the data.
Personally, I'd do a fresh install after a backing things up as the simplest solution but if you're comfortable doing a memory test that's worth a try. It's not common that RAM breaks but when it does it can be hard to troubleshoot from the OS itself. Windows has a way to test this using the repair disk tools but I've only ever used memtest using linux boot disks or dedicated memory test usbs. Modern BIOS's often have testing tools too, I just never use them. Look it up if you want to consider that, it will tell you if your RAM is bad.
Modern RAM is pretty robust.
As Rozzy said, you could boot into a Linux image from a USB and if it seems to work alright then the hardware seems to work fine. This may be easier to do and less spooky to you than running memtest, though you can use the same image to do both.
With 8GB of RAM + web browsing in modern Windows I could see Windows just eating up all the RAM and constantly swapping to disk or something.
Personally, since it sounds like you have a lot of shit on that laptop that isn't accounted for, including potential malware, I'd recommend a reinstall for performance and safety reasons. I just don't want to be yet another techy telling you to do something you're uncomfortable doing, else I'd say ditch Windows entirely.
Whatever you do, you really don't need to use 3rd party antimalware these days as an individual on Windows, Windows Defender is pretty good now. A benefit of Windows being so connected to Microsoft nowadays. Use something like Ublock Origin as a browser adblock as it helps your security a bit.
FYI your product ID doesn't do anything for me.
That said I don't know anything about how they compare when it comes to managing registry fixes.
Also worth keeping in mind OP is tech illiterate so more prone to fuck something up in an effort to fix a problem that may be unrelated to anything optimization software will do.
How to Disable Superfetch on Windows 10 and 11
Superfetch (known as SysMain in Windows 10 and Windows 11) is a built-in Windows service that preloads your frequently used apps in the RAM. If you experience sluggish performance on your PC, you may want to turn this feature off. Here’s how to do that.
www.howtogeek.com
Get a flash drive or external drive and back up all of your files before you start seriously messing with things. Just copying and pasting is sufficient and 250GB is not that expensive to buy if needed, especially if you're afraid to lose the data.
Personally, I'd do a fresh install after a backing things up as the simplest solution but if you're comfortable doing a memory test that's worth a try. It's not common that RAM breaks but when it does it can be hard to troubleshoot from the OS itself. Windows has a way to test this using the repair disk tools but I've only ever used memtest using linux boot disks or dedicated memory test usbs. Modern BIOS's often have testing tools too, I just never use them. Look it up if you want to consider that, it will tell you if your RAM is bad.
Modern RAM is pretty robust.
As Rozzy said, you could boot into a Linux image from a USB and if it seems to work alright then the hardware seems to work fine. This may be easier to do and less spooky to you than running memtest, though you can use the same image to do both.
With 8GB of RAM + web browsing in modern Windows I could see Windows just eating up all the RAM and constantly swapping to disk or something.
Personally, since it sounds like you have a lot of shit on that laptop that isn't accounted for, including potential malware, I'd recommend a reinstall for performance and safety reasons. I just don't want to be yet another techy telling you to do something you're uncomfortable doing, else I'd say ditch Windows entirely.
Whatever you do, you really don't need to use 3rd party antimalware these days as an individual on Windows, Windows Defender is pretty good now. A benefit of Windows being so connected to Microsoft nowadays. Use something like Ublock Origin as a browser adblock as it helps your security a bit.
FYI your product ID doesn't do anything for me.
I'd recommend BleachBit nowadays, CCleaner has had issues over time that are worth keeping in mind and is now basically part of the Avast umbrella. Avast has had a lot of issues over the years too, including potential privacy issues.
That said I don't know anything about how they compare when it comes to managing registry fixes.
Also worth keeping in mind OP is tech illiterate so more prone to fuck something up in an effort to fix a problem that may be unrelated to anything optimization software will do.
