What the HELL is Win 10 doing that makes everything so slow???

Keith G Z · 16 Apr 2016

After installing some updates a short while ago navigation on my computer started slowing down. Every day it gets a bit worse and today it is taking up to 20 seconds before a page/folder will load. This happens while I am faffing on the Internet and even if I am simply navigating between folders on my desktop. *click* and then sit and watch the paint on the wall dry while the buffering icon goes round and round and round until eventually whatever page/site/file I want appears on my screen.

I do a disc and registry cleanup at least once a day so it isn't anything to do with that.

Please tell me how to fix this problem (in easy to understand terms as I am not a computer fundi) before I put a fist through my poor, innocent monitor.

Vince Massi · 16 Apr 2016

Keith, try this. Turn on Windows 10 and walk away for a few hours. You might be stuck in an upgrade.

If that doesn't work, install the free Win Patrol to see what your start-up programs are; you could have malware starting immediately with your rig.

You can run a deep scan with your anti-virus. If the problem remains, install the free Malwarebytes and run a deep scan.

If none of those ideas work, come on back and we'll try again.

dalchina · 16 Apr 2016

Hi, were these Windows updates? OR sthg else?

Check your disk SMART parameters (e.g. Crystaldiskinfo).

What is your idle CPU and disk usage? Check in using your task manager (e.g. CTRL +SHIFT +ESC)

You might like to try a clean boot.

I do a disc and registry cleanup at least once a day so it isn't anything to do with that.
What do you use to clean your registry? This is often considered unnecessary and risky- i.e. could cause problems without any actual benefit.

Keith G Z · 18 Apr 2016

Thank you both for your responses.

Vince - I had already done all scans but I did them again just in case (Kaspersky, Malwarebytes and Spybot) and all were clear.

Given that I had automatic upgrades turned off because I am on a metered connection I didn’t expect your second suggestion to provide a solution but before I gave it a go and after enduring the diabolical way that one has to search to find things on Win 10 (when compared to the absolute ease of Win 7) a managed to get to a screen that showed that an upgrade was indeed running. At the time it was on 94% so I waited the 90 minutes it took for the downloading and upgrading to finish and investigated further. After another painful search I eventually found the place where you turn off automatic upgrades and found that it had been switched on again. This most certainly wasn’t done by me and I can only think that when I did the manual upgrade I mentioned in my opening post Microsoft must have altered my setting. I switched it off again and, up to now, the slowness seems to have disappeared.

I can't understand why this update took more than a week to download though. My computer is on from 9am until midnight every day though I must admit that it is set to go to sleep after a period. Would the sleep interrupt the download?

Dalchina – I use CCleaner once a day and once a week, before I do a weekly back-up, I also use the Microsoft Disk Cleanup tool occasionally augmenting them with a run of both Wise Disk Cleaner and Wise Registry Cleaner. They all seem to find different things to clean. I have been doing this for years and haven’t encountered any problems yet. Touch wood.

Thanks again. It’s great to have a forums like this where people who, like myself, don’t understand the workings of computer stuff can come and get help when they need it without having to resort to the usually quite expensive “real life” sources.

Vince Massi · 18 Apr 2016

Keith, I´m glad that we could help. You do realize that Windows 10 upgrades can't be turned off? Delayed, but not prevented. MS claims that having everyone using an identical system makes it easier to solve problems.

Obviously, as the years roll by, some rigs will not be able to handle these upgrades.

dalchina · 18 Apr 2016

@Keith G Z
- if you care to review my post above, the data might help in suggesting why things are slowing down.
Otherwise I can only assume you have a very slow internet connection.

@Vince Massi Not entirely true (first point):
Windows Update Automatic Updates - Enable or Disable in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

Keith G Z · 18 Apr 2016

@dalchina

a) They were Windows updates
b) I haven't a clue what disk SMART parameters are
c) You mean this?

What the HELL is Win 10 doing that makes everything so slow???-processes.jpg

Vince Massi · 18 Apr 2016

By George, Dalchina, you're right! The site you linked to states "Microsoft has prevented disabling automatic updates in the Home edition."

However, it goes on to explain that if Enterprise or Pro Editions are on a group policy, updates can be stopped.

dalchina · 19 Apr 2016

Keith G Z said:

@dalchina

a) They were Windows updates
b) I haven't a clue what disk SMART parameters are

Hi, The task manager screenshot is useful - looks quite normal. No processes using excessive CPU time, plenty of free RAM, disk not busy. Glad your problem has disappeared.

So it seems you had a temporary internet issue. You could just have been unlucky somehow- bu maybe you were also uploading.. have you turned this setting off?

What the HELL is Win 10 doing that makes everything so slow???-snap-2016-04-19-07.50.51.jpg

You can try browsing to
http://www.speedtest.org/
and running the speed test.

SMART: try e.g. Crystaldiskinfo (free). This will report fairly clearly if there are problems with your HDD.

What the HELL is Win 10 doing that makes everything so slow???-snap-2016-04-19-07.38.06.jpg

Keith G Z · 25 Apr 2016

Yep, Dalchina, I do have that update thing turned off. Things are much, much better and my gut feel is that some of the remaining small delays are caused by MS Edge because often when I am doing my daily disk cleanup I get a pop-up asking me whether I want to close Edge so that the cleanup up can commence. Sometimes after I have clicked "yes" to the question I get another pop-up saying that Edge won't close and would I like CCleaner to force it to do so. Thanks again for your responses. I'm an almost happy bunny now.