It has an SSD but I don't think it's being overloaded as I don't have that much saved on the laptop.
Tim.
Flipping Windows!
- Thread starter TitanTim
- Start date
Tim.
Just checking and the the laptop is running 99 background processes but all at 0% of CPU and running 3 apps which are Firefox, Norton360 and Sticky Notes which is only using between 3 to 10% of CPU and 58% of memory.
All the Windows security stuff is disabled as I'm running Norton 360, I'm not running any other malware software.
I've been fiddling around with Norton 360 by disabling some background processes and it seems to have improved performance so starting to think it's Norton for some reason so I may remove it and see if it makes a difference. The issue started with not being able to load any websites and the laptop was grinding to a halt so I did a restore of Windows 10 and put Norton 360 back on and is kind of running again. I'm still having the issue that some sites such as Facebook and Instagram are taking a few minutes to load and then not all of the information displays without refreshing the page a few times, same with other sites that are image heavy. Sites such as this one everything is loading fine and quickly.
Having said that, YouTube is running fine and loads up with no issues
Tim.
Gloucester
99 processes for win10 is great. Norton is a well known resource hog. ESET is very good for low impact. Kaspersky if you're wanting free service.
Ran disk cleanup and a defrag? Windows own defrag tool is useless. O&O can be used free for a month, and is cheap to buy. You'll need to go into the settings so it defrags SSD's, and turn off the automatic optimisation.
You'll upgrade long before defrag wears out an SSD
Yes I've heard Norton can be a bit intrusive, I've been using it for years and just find you have to manage it a little to minimise it's background processes, one of the reasons why I was thinking of giving Apple a try and leave all that behind.
Tim.
Norton has always been more of a problem than a solution.
Eh? The reason for defragging HDDs was to get big files sequential to save the head banging around the place more than usual. There may be slightly more indexing involved on an SSD but any defrag savings would be several orders of magnitude smaller. And I imagine that's all taken care of in the fundamental design of the wear levelling anyway.
Eh? The reason for defragging HDDs was to get big files sequential to save the head banging around the place more than usual. There may be slightly more indexing involved on an SSD but any defrag savings would be several orders of magnitude smaller. And I imagine that's all taken care of in the fundamental design of the wear levelling anyway.
Yes it was. But windows has this annoying habit of just throwing files anywhere it sees fit. Over time, this affect becomes noticeable. I wouldn't defrag an SSD weekly, but once or twice a year will return results.
Windows doesn't have any say in where files go tho. It just lobs them in the general direction of a device driver that gives it to the SSD. It takes care of everything else.
Liverpool
I've not touched Norton since it was acquired by Symantec in the 1990s when they basically screwed over Mac customers by using almost all the system resources to offer live scanning. It also had a high right of false positives.
The only thing we found it useful for (aside from the original Norton Utilities) was to clean up the Microsoft Office documents that had been infected with the infamous 'macro virus' by our Windows PC owning clients/colleagues.
The only 'always on' AV/security product I've used has been the built-in Windows/MacOS AV/security...with MalwareBytes/SpyBot as an 'offline' tool if I want to manually check/scan something.
The latest 'security suite' offerings from most AV vendors are bloated bundles of apps that keep offering more and more 'useless' functions that most people will never use (ransomware protection, VPN, cloud backup, password manager, proprietary firewall, parental controls, identity theft protection, etc.) to justify their subscriptions. Plus some of them Norton/Bulldog/Avast/et all leave nasty traces of system-level stuff behind (especially the firewall/vpn crap) when you try to uninstall them, whether you use the official uninstaller or the Windows programs/apps uninstall function, so that it sometimes seems like you've got a network problem when it's actually a incomplete uninstall that's borked your system.
The only thing we found it useful for (aside from the original Norton Utilities) was to clean up the Microsoft Office documents that had been infected with the infamous 'macro virus' by our Windows PC owning clients/colleagues.
The only 'always on' AV/security product I've used has been the built-in Windows/MacOS AV/security...with MalwareBytes/SpyBot as an 'offline' tool if I want to manually check/scan something.
The latest 'security suite' offerings from most AV vendors are bloated bundles of apps that keep offering more and more 'useless' functions that most people will never use (ransomware protection, VPN, cloud backup, password manager, proprietary firewall, parental controls, identity theft protection, etc.) to justify their subscriptions. Plus some of them Norton/Bulldog/Avast/et all leave nasty traces of system-level stuff behind (especially the firewall/vpn crap) when you try to uninstall them, whether you use the official uninstaller or the Windows programs/apps uninstall function, so that it sometimes seems like you've got a network problem when it's actually a incomplete uninstall that's borked your system.
I had free Malwarebytes Pro (part of the bank offering) and when it expired, it blocked access to all my network drives from my PC. No idea why, just uninstalled it and the problem went away. Guess that was my punishment for not paying for a new subscription.
Strange update.
Been doing some Googling as still perplexed as to why the laptop was still playing up not loading certain websites, or it kind of half loads them minus any images etc, yet other sites were loading fine. I found some fixes to try in Windows 10 which I was going to have a look at few days ago, then all of a sudden after 10 days or so it's now all working fine and back to normal and the laptop back to being speedy, so no idea what was going on.
I did have a new router 3 weeks ago and the issue started about a week later but I wouldn't have thought it would be that.
Anyways, thanks for the replies and help.
Tim.
Been doing some Googling as still perplexed as to why the laptop was still playing up not loading certain websites, or it kind of half loads them minus any images etc, yet other sites were loading fine. I found some fixes to try in Windows 10 which I was going to have a look at few days ago, then all of a sudden after 10 days or so it's now all working fine and back to normal and the laptop back to being speedy, so no idea what was going on.
I did have a new router 3 weeks ago and the issue started about a week later but I wouldn't have thought it would be that.
Anyways, thanks for the replies and help.
Tim.
I've only just realised I always use Chrome for the forum now as some time last year Windows Explorer kept throwing me out of here, especially on the Moderator actions.
As I'm still on Windows 10 I can't help wondering if it is Microsoft trying to push me towards Windows 11.
As I'm still on Windows 10 I can't help wondering if it is Microsoft trying to push me towards Windows 11.
The one thing I find really annoying with Windows Iain is they bring out a new version that won't run on your hardware, as in version 11 which wont run on my DELL so people are more tempted to buy a new laptop or PC. And we are supposed to be living in a more environmentally conscious worldI've only just realised I always use Chrome for the forum now as some time last year Windows Explorer kept throwing me out of here, especially on the Moderator actions.
As I'm still on Windows 10 I can't help wondering if it is Microsoft trying to push me towards Windows 11.
Tim.