New
#11
Thank you very much everyone for your input here - very helpful/educational/informative. I learned some new things!
I seemed to have solved my problem for the time being (corrupt account/profile + missing or damaged Windows system components + regular lagging/crashing), though the solution I've found is probably not one that would be recommended. However, it's working well for now and if things take a turn for the worse I'll just go ahead and bite the bullet and reinstall the whole beast from scratch.
My multi-faceted solution, just as documentation in case someone else has similar issues and might find this helpful:
- Main fix for corrupt system components/malfunctioning Start Menu: login to the master/system-generated "Administrator" account and adjust any privacy settings/permission problems/run Windows Update/and go ahead and throw in an admin-elevated Command Prompt "sfc /scannow" from that master Administrator profile. It seems the resolutions/repairs trickled down to the other accounts. For now though, I'm just going to use the Administrator account as my primary account - it's working light-years better than my original account (I know, I know, it's not advisable to leave the Admin account vulnerable like this/touch it but I don't really care at this point - it's working smoothly and if something terrible happens I'll just go with a clean install.
- Disable "explorer.exe" UI/window management animations for better performance - this seemed to also help/keeps my overly-sensitive and wimpy "Intel HD Graphics 515" integrated graphics chip from freaking out because, god forbid I try to alt-tab from one window to another or want to move a window a couple of inches every now and then... 🙄 (To accomplish this: Press and release Windows key --> type "System" --> press Enter --> "Advanced System Settings" --> "Settings..." under "Performance" --> disable whatever [super basic] graphic enhancement seems to be making your overly sensitive graphics card flip out.
After making these changes, my machine seems to function as I'd initially expected it should have from day one, when I ever-so-graciously gave the pathetic thing a forever home / adopted it from the Dell Orphanage. I'm never purchasing any "Windows 10" machine again that doesn't have 6 GB of RAM minimum as well as a stand-alone/decently powered graphics card. None of this integrated Intel nonsense.