computer is slow

Hey all i have an acer laptop running windows 7 home premium... and its starting to slow down a bit.. i dont think its a virus because i did a scan with Mcafee and didnt find anything...

Heres what i did so far:

Virus scan
Spyware Scan (i think i did one)
Uninstall junk programs
Check disk for errors......

What is bothering me tho is when i open a program and then it opens but then it doesnt response for like 30 secs..... on and off sometimes...

What else can i do?

 

the classical format and get a real antivirus like Avira Antivirus Pro not McAfee which is the biggest resource hog on the planet

 

What Antivirus software do you guys use and or recommend? and it has to be free for right now.

Classical format?... please explain more........

 

that means format your laptop, as simple as that is

or restore it back to factory state

do not forget to backup your data

If you ever do uninstall McAfee Uninstaller, after the uninstall, run this cleaner to remove all the leftoevers:

McAfee Consumer Product Removal (MCPR) tool 7.6.133.0

 

McAfee is a virus in itself.

I would definitely start with a full format of your system, provided of course you have the Windows installation media. Get a free antivirus or stick with Security Essentials. Most people I know are happy with Avast + Malwarebytes AntiMalware.
I would also use a good Internet browser in the future with a good adblock add-on (I use firefox with adblock) and if you REALLY want to go the extra mile, you could get a custom Host file.

I also purchased Perfectdisk (license allows you to install it on 3 systems) to defrag my drives. It does so in the background and keeps all your drive in optimum state.

Finally, get CCleaner which removes temporary files and other junk.

 

Get MSE it integrates with Windows Update and is free from M$....with no paid subscription and for me works and my many laptops and desktop no problem running it.

 

Bitdefender Free is the best. MSE has gone downhill. It requires updates through Windows updates and if you set it to manual, then you have to manually install the MSE/Defender updates every day. Bitdefender Free is great. It's has one of the best detection rates, and has the least impact on system performance.

 

That's only for Windows 8. MSE in 7 updates definitions automatically every day regardless of your Windows Update setting and is a less stripped-down product.

MSE is super lightweight if you disable Real-Time Protection, although at that point it's more of an on-demand scanner than an AV. I have very cautious habits so I'm probably not a good judge of an AV's effectiveness.

 

I have said it many times but noone believes, MSE is one of the worst antivirus programs out there! Yes it is light on resources but it sucks big time in protection!

I have had 2 viruses crawl twice on to my system even though I am a safe user. Furthermore, it sucks in deleting any threats

AV-TEST

I don't know how many people believe in this POS Antivirus, just because they *think* they had no problems with it that makes it good? LOL To everyone running MSE I advice you to run a scan with another AV god knows how many viruses you might be having and not even knowing it

Look at MSE's results down at the bottom:





One time while I visited my mom's place, my sister was telling me that her laptop keeps having these popups from the AV. So I checked and she had MSE installed telling her that she has a few viruses, which upon checking, I know they are false positives which I verified on virustotal.com . Stuff like a utility that can display your WLAN password or another that can tell you what product keys you have installed.

So I let MSE delete them when it prompted me for an action and thought oh well she doesn't need them anyway they were from my Software folder which I copy to all our computers in the family.

1 min. later, that same message pops up again, so I do the same thing, delete them, and the message keeps popping up always! MSE firstly had a lot of False positives, and more importantly, it couldn't even delete those harmless false positives! god knows what would happen if they were real viruses.

So not only does that test I posted by a professional virus testing organization stands true, I have also had experience with this piece of crap.

Want another reason why it's crap? All AVs update silently in the background but for me on Windows 8, the updates come as a Windows update!!! So it doesn't update automatically instead I keep getting notifications every now and then that there are new definitions for Microsoft Windows Defender! screw that !

Further proof that Microsoft themselves advice people to install a real antivirus and not to rely on MSE:

Goodbye Microsoft Security Essentials: Microsoft Now Recommends You Use a Third-Party Antivirus

 

That could be said of all A/V programs...so your conclusion is so disinformation that is helps none to start. MSE also has the least impact on system performance as well going by your own conclusion.

All A/V programs are only good as the user whom clicks on popups and ads and theat permit malware/virus to install. Any A/V program can get infrected if the users fail to learn proper computer usage and what not to click on and to avoid infected sites and infected files they receive in their emails. Once you click something that gives it permission to bypass your A/V protection no excuses there!! A/V protection is only good as the users knowledge whom uses the computer not to click on or go to bad sites. You can't stop human ignorance to listen to proper computer usage.