Dell Computer Running Slow

[EDO]

I have a Dell Inspiron 2350 running Windows 10. Lately it has been running very slow with my applications as well as on the internet. Can we check to see what I can do to improve performance?

Thanks
ED

[Digerati]

When did this problem start? I had this same problem on two of my 5 systems here last week after a Windows Update. This was very unusual because I rarely ever have problems with Windows Update updates. But as you describe, my applications and my Internet access (with multiple browsers) were significantly slower.

I have NEVER (yet!) had to roll-back a Windows Update and didn't want to start now. So I decided to do a "cold" reboot. By "cold" I mean shut down the computer and flip the master power switch on the back of the power supply (if your supply has one) to off (or “0”) or unplug the power supply from the wall for about 15 seconds. Then turn the master power switch to on (or “1”) or reconnect power and boot up and see what happens. By totally removing power, you remove the +5Vsb standby voltage all ATX Form Factor power supplies are required to supply whenever the power supply is plugged into the wall and (if applicable) the master power switch is set to on. This standby voltage is distributed throughout several points on the motherboard, including RAM for faster boots and the USB ports too. This also keeps alive several features, including “wake on keyboard” and “wake on mouse”, and the network interface for “Wake on LAN” commands. A cold reboot ensures any device settings that may be held by the standby voltage are released, then reset when power is restored.

After doing the "cold" reboot, both computers started working normally again.

Is your Windows 10 fully updated? What security do you use and is it current? Do you have a secondary scanner to "on-demand" scanning just to make sure you (the user and ALWAYS weakest link in security) or your primary scanner did not let something slip by)? I generally recommend Malwarebytes for that.

FTR, I use Microsoft Defender (formally called Windows Defender) as my primary anti-malware solution on all my systems here and Malwarebytes as my secondary. Thus far, since installing W10 5 years ago, Malwarebytes has never found anything other than a "wanted" PUP (potentially unwanted program).

***

A common cause for system slow downs is system clutter, especially if it results in low free disk space.

You can run Windows Disk Cleanup (or CCleaner, if already installed) on your drives to clean out the clutter. Then see what happens.

One of the biggest common hogs for disk space is Windows.old. This is a file created by Windows whenever it has a major update and is there just in case the update has problems and you want to roll back to the previous version. It is supposed to automatically purge itself from your drive 30 days after the update but there have been occasions where it lingered on. If running Windows Cleanup or CCleaner does not purge Windows.old, there is no harm in deleting it manually even before the 30 days is up - as long as you are certain you will not want to roll back Windows.

[wangyan]

If your Dell runs slowly, you can try to disable some unnecessary startup programs, clean up your hard disk, add more RAM, enlarge the size of virtual memory, etc. Besides, if you install the OS on the traditional mechanical hard disk (HDD), you can upgrade it to an SSD drive, or just extend the system partition to speed up computer.