Suddenly, everything loads slowly

Windows 10 Home, 64 bit, version 1803

As of today, I am finding that every program I have loads much more slowly than before. This includes operating system objects such as the Project menu, Windows Explorer, as well as 3rd party software.

For example:

• Windows-P to open the Project menu now takes 15 seconds where before it took about 1 second
• Launching Windows Explorer can take 20 seconds, where before it seemed very quick
• Firefox takes about 25 seconds, whereas before it probably took 10 seconds (and during this 25 second loading time, the menu bar sometimes reads "Not responding")
• Task manager takes 25 seconds, whereas before it probably took 5-10 seconds
• Quicken takes about 20 seconds, whereas before it probably took about 5-10 seconds

Once a program loads, it seems to run at the expected speed.


I have rebooted my system several times, doesn't help. I look in Task Manager, but nothing seems to be eating up a lot of CPU or memory. I have not installed new hardware recently, and as far as I know, Windows is set to update automatically, so I can't say whether or not new software has been installed.

So, I don't know what to look for next. Please give me some advice.

You said, CPU is fine in task manager. What about disk activity?
You'll see it much better in Resource Monitor. And did you check for any malware?
Check most active processes.



I would check for SMART values of drive after (you have SSD, or HDD?)

Those values seem normal. But check it in numbers view last column is response time - should be in ms.
SMART values for disk are OK?
run sfc /scannow (in elevated command prompt)

Other things to check:
- what Antivirus do you have? disable it and check again
-check services: run msconfig and disable non MS services one by one
- preform clean boot and check again

And one more thing.. if you didn't already: make a system backup (Image with Macrium would be fine), if you have any external storage.

Hi @Paige Miller

Let's troubleshoot that using Windows Performance Toolkit.

1. Open a command line as an Administrator;
2. Type the following command in the command line Windows: cd %programfiles(x86)%\Windows Kits\10\Windows Performance Toolkit
3. type this command "wpr -start generalprofile -start CPU"; this will start trace recording.
4. Open Windows Explorer.
5. Open Firefox
   
   
6. After both of them loads, type this command to stop trace recording "wpr -stop %userprofile%\desktop\MyTrace.etl". The trace file will be created on your desktop.
7. Compress the resulting file (Important)
8. Share it through https://www.transfernow.net/en/ or any other file sharing platform.

If Windows Performance Toolkit is not present on your system, you can download it from this link. After installing it, go back to step 1.

See you…

Paige Miller said:

What next? I have found the log file mentioned, but I don't know what to do.

Sorry I'm late. Wasn't online today.
Sfc shows that you have some corrupted files, more is in the log you got. You can upload the log (zipped), but is good to restart system and run Sfc command again. If this wont help, you'll have to run DISM command to repair corrupted files:

again, in elevated command prompt run:

Code:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

What about other questions?

as far as I know, Windows is set to update automatically, so I can't say whether or not new software has been installed.

You can check in Update History in Settings. Please post a screenshot of what you see.
Does the date of the last update relate to your problem at all? (i.e. immediately precede it?)

(An update some time back was linked to slowdowns on some systems - Meltdown and Spectre attack protection related. You could try this small tool:
GRC
)

Try installing Hard Disk Sentinel (trial) to check your disks. The text description on the GUI can be very helpful sometimes- post a screenshot.