Laptop lagging while working.

Looks like there's been an update to the forums since I last visited. I will go over the tutorials later tonight, but right now I'm technically at work, even though I do work from home. I can't really discuss what I do for work and for whom because I signed a NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement). What I can say is I do various types of tasks on my computer. It's recommended that I use Chrome as it's a more efficient browser the Edge-Explorer or Firefox.

This is the main problem. It takes too long for each new task to load on my system. Some of these tasks can take as little as 10 or 15 seconds to complete and pay .10 each. Done quickly enough I've made as much as $20 per hour! But now in the time it takes for one task to load, I could have done 2 or 3 more tasks. I've done most common things like cleared cookies, history. Double checked hard drive and it's not fragmented, and so on.

Here's my dilemma. The last time I used CCleaner, it really jacked up my system forcing me to reinstall Windows 10. I do not want to repeat that experience. I need to spend my time working not a day or two reinstalling and configuring my system! I have been told by folks on here with much more experience with computers that some of the more common system maintenance and performance type software isn't all that great, that I should or could use just what comes with Windows. I'd like to get more opinions about this, especially after that horrid experience I had with CCleaner!

Since posting I tried to go "back to work" but my system had become so bogged down I just couldn't get anywhere. So I've been busy. Besides dumping cookies and history in Chrome, I downloaded and ran Malwarebytes. My budget has been rather tight so when my year subscription to Kaspersky ran out in February, I started using Windows Defender. Not sure what it's really defending because Malwarebytes found 80 threats!

After doing that, I started dumping any and all programs that I no longer used, or totally forgot about deleting after I found out that I didn't care for it. That freed up about 100Gb on my 500Gb drive! Although I have disk optimization set to run weekly, I've got it running now just to be sure it's defragged as best as Windows defrag and optimization works.

Since I couldn't work I did go back over the tutorial section. I found out my system has a WEI score of 4.4 with the video processor really dragging my overall score down. Went over to Dslreports and checked internet speed. Getting 80Gb/s down and 11Gb/s up. Overall score of A, buffer bloat at a B and Quality at an A as well.

About the only thing I haven't done is run CCleaner or RegClean. After a terrible experience I had where CCleaner wiped out files I needed, I'm a bit leery to do so again. Since I'm running this work software in Chrome is there anything short of installing more ram, or buying a completely new system that I can do?

Sidebar: After putting those 80 threats in quarantine, I was tried to run YouTube so I could listen to music while deleting stuff. Now my sound isn't working right! Barely louder then a whisper with my headphones on at 100% volume!

you say Getting 80Gb/s down and 11Gb/s up. do you mean megabytes? Its not clear were your problem is the pc/cpu or the internet try setting your dns to 1.1.1.1 & 1.0.0.1 as that a very fast dns which could be a slow down problem. Malwarebytes should give you a log post the log so we can see what you had as that may have effected your pc

You're right! I was so flustered about not being able to work I put down Gb/s instead of Mb/s. Even more miffed now since my Bluetooth headset sounds like crap after running Malwarebytes! I'm including the text file of the Malwarebytes report for this scan.