Slow Computer

have you ever cleaned out the registry

Yeah I think I did with CCleaner.  Its helped a good amount but still a ton slower than it has been in previous times.

http://www.wisecleaner.com/wiseregistrycleanerfree.html    its free   down it   follow inst run it  and.......

You may have a virus or malware that slowing down your laptop. When was the last time you did a antivirus program scan? Go to cnet.com and download Malwarebytes and see if that helps.

There could be many things slowing it down, anti virus software, etc. The more programs added the slower they normally get. Even uninstalling programs will leave bits and pieces behind that can slow down computers. I have a friend who formats his hard drive and reinstalls all his software every 6 months but that is taking things to extremes. Try the 3 finger salute (Crtl - Alt - Del) and have a look in Task Manager to see what is running (assuming you are using Windows). Within the Task Manager also go to Performance and click on Resource Monitor and check what is using up your CPU, Memory and Disk.

Thanks Guys I'm trying your suggestions as I type (installing right now)!

Les.61-  Unfortunately when I look at whats eating up my CPU usage I don't know what should be being used or not.  

Hey thanks Guys!  I have never ran that Malwarebyte Program before and it found quite a bit!   Also ran the registry cleaner with CCleaner.  We will see how it performs here....

If it's still slow, you may want to consider re-installing the O/S.  

You may have some programs running in the background slowing things down. Hold down the key with the windows flag and press R, this will open the run window.  You can also find the run window under accessories under programs.  Type in msconfig and run it. Select the startup tab. This will show a list of programs that start and run in the background. You uncheck the box in front of an item to keep it from starting. You will recognize some that you will want to leave running, i.e. iTunes helper if you are using iTunes. If you don't recognize a program uncheck it, you can always come back and turn it back on if you break something you use. None of these programs are necessary for Windows to start up and run so you can't hurt anything by shutting these programs off.

rjhansen26, ccleaner can do the same thing by going into tools then startup.

CodyJ, what version of malwarebytes are you running as current version is 2.0.2.1012?

What OS is it? I still have windows XP on an old laptop and it has really gotten slower in recent months since they stopped updating.

the end of updates for xp has nothing to do with xp getting slow as most likely have some nasties in it or to many things in your startup.