Analysing Windows 10 slowdown.

Associate
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17 Oct 2019
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I am not familiar with Windows 10.
I have been asked by someone out here to sort out an unbleievably slow Laptop.
It is particularly slow on startup.
I have had a look using Task Manager and have removed Trusteer Rapport and tried to remove Skype.
Can anybody suggest ways to investigate (from a software angle) a slow laptop?
It has 4GB RAM and a regular harddisk.
I may replace the HDD with a SSD and add RAM although the latter is probably not important.
 
Soldato
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18 Aug 2007
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Liverpool
Windows 10.
a regular harddisk.

I've found the slowness for you. :p

I may replace the HDD with a SSD and add RAM although the latter is probably not important.

Not a bad first shout. Check out startup items in task manager, and disable anything non-essential. Delete any programs/apps they definitely don't need. Update everything else (including Windows). Defrag the hard disk (expect this to take a long time, overnight or more depending on disk size). Really though you can't polish a turd so much as roll it in glitter and pretend. Adding an SSD will be a (relatively) cheap big performance boost, and at least double the current RAM. People like to say Windows 10 is much more performant and better than its predecessors, but the reality is a low end laptop with low end horsepower is always going to struggle with it compared to a lighter OS.
 
Permabanned
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A standard HDD is now one of the biggest causes of bottle necks I’ve found. Add an SSD if your motherboard will take one (some dont’) then reinstall windows and watch it fly.

Double the ram capacity and up the processor a couple of gems and you laughing.

I would never build a system or tell people to purchase a system without an SSD now that’s for sure.
 
Man of Honour
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13 Oct 2006
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Check what the system is actually doing - Windows 10 can get in a bit of a loop trying to do updates and/or sometimes the anti-malware service seems to get its knickers in a twist and just goes through a never ending loop of what I think is constant re-trying to apply a definition update and chugging ~40% CPU.

4GB of RAM shouldn't itself cause a massive slowdown in Windows 10 unless you have a hideous amount of stuff running and do no housekeeping at all but a mechanical HDD and Windows 10 is definitely not an ideal situation.
 
Soldato
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10 Jul 2010
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First disconnect it from the internet completely to stop it downloading any more updates for now.

Then completely remove the metro apps with the below commands in a Powershell command prompt:
Code:
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppXProvisionedPackage -online | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -online


Then run Disk Clean-up as an administrator and clean up as many files as you can, especially the Defender, Windows Updates and Delivery Optimisation.

Open a regular command prompt as an administrator and next run the below commands to check and hopefully repair the system's integrity:
Code:
sfc /scannow
dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase


With any luck the above will help to speed up the laptop a little and possibly repair any system files if needed. Once you've done the above, reconnect to the internet and check for Windows Updates with crossed fingers.

If you're thinking about an SSD, you could forget any checks and just do a fresh install of Windows 10. But make sure you check it for all Windows Updates, especially with 1909 just around the corner.
 
Man of Honour
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First disconnect it from the internet completely to stop it downloading any more updates for now.

Doesn't however stop all updates behaviour - if there are pending (or stuck) updates it might still do prep work in the background even without an active connection which on a slower machine can suck up CPU and IO time for quite a long time after start up - one of my bigger issues with Windows 10 and its update behaviour as it is very hard to control that and continues with it oblivious to whatever the end user is trying to do.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
17 Oct 2019
Posts
7
Many thanks for the various suggestions; installing a SSD seems the favourite and since the most irritating problem is a slow startup time that is what I will try first - using Clonezilla.

What are Metros and will removing them have any negative impact?
 
Soldato
Joined
10 Jul 2010
Posts
6,277
What are Metros and will removing them have any negative impact?
I refer to the Windows apps as Metro apps, as they stem from Windows 8.1. Basically they are the apps you can find in Microsoft Store, except they come pre-installed with Windows these days.

None of my personal installs have apps installed, especially pre-installed ones. I don't like bloat and I choose what I want on my system.
 
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