Computer very slow?

[Martin King 2Participant @martinking2]

Hi All,

Recently for no apparent reason my computer seems to be really slow and I constantly get a creeping progress bar at the top when I open a window. Have I accidentally turned on some kind of indexing feature or something.?

Running Windows 8.1 on what is usually a quite fast machine.

Cheers,

Martin

[Martin King 2Participant @martinking2]

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

Sometimes you pick an iffy thing up via adverts or a part of the registry changes for the worse or you install a new program or whatever

My solution in XP is to roll back to a few days before, or a couple of weeks ago via the system restore function

programs/ accessories/ system tools/ system restore (in XP)

You should be fine after that

EDIT the top bar in 8.1 is usually the search/indexing function, so as you say it may need "auto" to be switched off

Edited By Ady1 on 03/05/2017 10:10:47

[Enough!Participant @enough]

One of the first things I do when installing/reinstalling Windows is to turn off indexing on all drives. It's always a source of performance loss and since I use the search function relatively rarely (may once a month) it makes more sense to swallow a performance loss on the search rather than continuously.

If you use search frequently it may be worthwhile to turn on indexing (or actually, do nothing – it's turned on by default).

[Martin King 2Participant @martinking2]

Thanks folks!

How do I turn it off please?

Martin

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

When Windows machine gets slow always worth restarting, if like me you just hibernate or standby between sessions.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

There are lots of reasons why this may have happened; I think indexing is unlikely to be the sole cause. It's possible that you are seeing a slow index progress bar because Microsoft's indexing service is also a victim.

Windows liable to pick up various nasties and it tends to clog up over time. Ady1 mentions a few examples. An accumulation of duff entries in the registry is a common cause of trouble, also disk fragmentation and unnecessary background processes. It's quite usual to have two or three problems by the time you realise something is wrong

This website gives a reasonable overview of what to look for and how to fix common issues. As the advice is somewhat labour intensive, there are several utilities that help. I've used the free versions of ccleaner and malwarebytes with success.

Dave

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Martin King 2 on 03/05/2017 17:23:34:

Thanks folks!

How do I turn it off please?

Martin

Right click 'properties'.

In W10 switch of indexing of file contents. You may find it useful to switch it on for certain folders.

Neil

[Phil WhitleyParticipant @philwhitley94135]

Download Advanced system care, and avast anti virus (both free). Run ASC on a full scan, then open avast, go to scan for viruses, and set to "boot time scan" It will ask you if you want to restart the computer now, click yes, and leave it alone for about an hour! Most viruses will disguise themselves as part of the Windows operating system, and are hard to detect, but the boot time scan works before windows has started, and gets them all! See how many viruses you had and be afraid! Lastly use smart defrag in ASC toolbox to defragment your hard drive(s) Use ASC weekly and defrag and boot time scan on avast monthly. Dont use Macaffee, Norton, or any of that bought crap, they take over your computer, use masses of resources, are the very devil to uninstall, and believe it or not, are not very good either! I have the bought versions of Avast and ASC now, they are cheap and good, but you get full protection with the free versions, you get more scan and clean tools with the bought versions, and thye are both under £20 if you wait for the special offers. I have been running XP original install for about 7 years on my net access machine, with no problems whatsoever, .

[Phil WhitleyParticipant @philwhitley94135]

Also, when your computer slows, hit ctrl/alt/del (or whatever brings up task manager on your o/s, and see what is using the resources, if you use firefox, watch for "plugin container.exe" and if it is open in task manager, highlight it and click "end process" Havent found a work around for this yet, but just shutting it down seems to work, and doesnt affect firefox either.

Hope this helps.

[Martin King 2Participant @martinking2]

Wow! I do have Norton 360 which I have had for years and pay about £70 pa for it.

Is the best advice really to get rid of it…?

Martin

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Posted by Phil Whitley on 03/05/2017 21:49:01:

Also, when your computer slows, hit ctrl/alt/del (or whatever brings up task manager on your o/s, and see what is using the resources, if you use firefox, watch for "plugin container.exe" and if it is open in task manager, highlight it and click "end process" Havent found a work around for this yet, but just shutting it down seems to work, and doesnt affect firefox either.

That's a pretty old Firefox problem, Phil – related to Flash as I recall – is the problem still around in current versions?

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

Wow, £70 for Norton, I buy Webroot for £30 pa.Very good and runs in the background.

I agree with Dave on CCleaner I use it every day now.

Clive

[Paul LousickParticipant @paullousick59116]

There are different types of viruses and using only one anti virus program does not always stop them.

I use Norton 360 and find it OK in conjunction with Malwarebytes (free)

Paul.

[Phil WhitleyParticipant @philwhitley94135]

Hi bandersnatch, yes, latest copy of firefox, funny thing is I didn't get it until about 2 updates ago, never had a problem before that. Incidentally , the main reason I use Avast is because of the "boot time scan" facility, very few virus killers have this facility, so if anyone else knows of another virus killer with a boot time scan, I would like to know. Paul Lousick, I agree with you, I also keep the Iobit malware fighter that comes bundled with ASC up to date, and scan with that as well. There are viruses which will attack and disable your "live" antivirus software, It will look like it is working, but actually, it isn't, and it will not update properly, or scan properly. In this instance, having a different virus killer up to date and ready to go on your computer is a boon! If in doubt, remove it and reinstall a new copy.

[Phil WhitleyParticipant @philwhitley94135]

Martin King, yes, I would get rid of Norton. I worked a couple of years at a computer repair shop, and we tried Norton internet security suite (I think it was callwd) caused several lockups, and several had to be clean installed because it was so hard to remove all the Norton files once it was on. If you are going to remove it, google removing Norton 360, and follow the instructions. There is a software removal tool bundled with ASC which searches for all files connected to a piece of software, deep scans and removes them all, but I think it is only on the bought version. Windoze add or remove software leaves a lot behind!

[Martin King 2Participant @martinking2]

Phil,

How is this going to affect the backups I have that were created by Norton Backup (part of 360)?

When 360 ,is removed will I be able to access the backups?

Martin (getting more and more worried )

[Martin King 2Participant @martinking2]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 03/05/2017 21:33:15:

Posted by Martin King 2 on 03/05/2017 17:23:34:

Thanks folks!

How do I turn it off please?

Martin

Right click 'properties'.

In W10 switch of indexing of file contents. You may find it useful to switch it on for certain folders.

Neil

Neil, sorry to be dim but right click where please?

Martin

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Right click on the C drive.

Neil

[Martin King 2Participant @martinking2]

Have installed Advanced system care, and avast anti virus both of which seem very good and found a load of rubbish. Managed to turn off the indexing on the C Drive, (thanks Neil!) and ran a boot scan without any problems.

I am happy to get rid of Norton (and save £70 pa!) but wonder whether it would mean that I lose my backups which are done via Norton 360?

Any thoughts please.

Martin

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Martin King 2 on 04/05/2017 13:27:37:

….

I am happy to get rid of Norton (and save £70 pa!) but wonder whether it would mean that I lose my backups which are done via Norton 360?

Any thoughts please.

Martin

Yes. But but assuming you have the deal I think you have, Norton only provide 25Gb of storage in the cloud. Instead you could buy a 2Tb USB Harddrive for about £70 and keep your backups safe at home. (Not wishing to start an argument with those who love the cloud, but I wouldn't store anything private on it.)

No problem with Avast (which I use) rather than Norton but be aware that the brand-name of an AVM product has very little relevance to it's current effectiveness. The business model of the supplier, the software engine used and the virus signature databases of these products can and do change over time. For good and for bad. It's true that Norton blotted their copybooks in the past but, at the moment (2017) , Norton happens to be one of the better choices. When buying a software product it pays to check what's known about the latest incarnation, and to compare it with the alternatives.

The main disadvantage of the free AVMs is that they bombard you with adverts suggesting you upgrade to the paid version.

Dave

[Martin King 2Participant @martinking2]

Hi Dave,

I have large amounts of storage available at home and my Norton backups reside on those but I believe that they are in 'Norton format?' so if I bin N360 will I still be abale to accesss them somehow.?

I got the paid version of AVC so no ads and only £23 so OK there and will wait a bit on AVast and see what I think of it.before paying up!

Is ther any potential conflict having all three products at the same time? Ceainly could do with saving £70 if I can still backup some other way.

Martin

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Hi Martin,

Usually not a good idea to run two Virus Protection packages at the same time – it slows everything down and they can object to each other. I've not used ASC myself but I think it's a cleaner rather than anti-virus so should be OK with either Avast or Norton. Perhaps Phil Whitley can confirm that?

As to backups, Norton should have put a utility called ARestore.exe on your computer. This should work even after the subscription has expired, provided you don't delete it. I haven't used it myself though.

I don't know if a Norton backup is compatible with anything else or not. It may well be a proprietary format. Even if it's not, if I were changing backup software, I'd start by taking a complete new backup so I could restore to that using the new software.

Dave

[Phil WhitleyParticipant @philwhitley94135]

Hi Silly old duffer, yes, most antivirus programs will not live together, I tend to only keep one live at a time, with one fully installed, but not running, so that I can use it if the other gets comprimised. I have found that the Iobit Malware fighter which is bundled with ASC seems to be quite happy to run alongside Avast, but that is usually not the case. Avast seems to be very good at stopping a virus from executing, because once they are running, they download other malicious stuff in the background, which can disable the virus killer software, although it still "appears" to be working. People forget to defragment, which is vitally important on MS operating systems, because of the messy way that Windoze puts software back on the drive. When I was in the ISP business with LN communications, we had a customer who printed and fitted vinyl signs to vehicles, and thus had a large plotter/printer/cutter attached to a pc, and complainedthat her computer took over an hour to boot up, but we found it was nearly two years old, and had never been defragmented! It took hours to do it, but she was amazed by the results!

[Phil WhitleyParticipant @philwhitley94135]

Yes, ASC is a cleaner, and lives perfectly happly with Avast! I too do not trust or like the cloud storage offerings out there, convenient though they may be, just seems to be rather expensive, and of little use unless you actually need multi point access to all your data. So, Martin King2, have you defragged it, and more importantly, is it running any better and faster?

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