I have a laptop that's around 4 years old, and it runs a lot slower than when it was new. I do all the regular stuff, like always installing Windows Updates & keeping AVGfree active & up to date. I don't even have a lot on my hard drive, so I don't see any need for defragmenting. My internet connection is great, I can watch YouTube without a problem at all. But starting the OS takes really long, as does starting/switching other programs.

So what do you suppose is causing this? I've heard reinstalling the OS can sometimes help. But if that's the case, should I go ahead and install Win10? I've been using Win7 (see pic) since I got the laptop. Obviously I could google for "how to speed up my pc" but then I'd just get a bunch of ads and crap. I trust members of this community, I'd rather hear from someone on here that I trust.

I would reinstall the OS, put it on its own partition if you can, and definitely KEEP win7, do not "upgrade" (err downgrade) to win10, imo.

Might check the task manager and see what's running in the background. A number of extra services you aren't using, memory vs Virtual memory is a good place to start.

Since it's a laptop, check your power settings, if it's in power saving mode, that's at 50% CPU power, you can go to balanced which should give you 100% but it depends on if it's plugged in vs if you need it. My computers anymore run on power saving and i ramp them up when needed.

Reinstalling the OS can probably help, but i wouldn't do Windows 10... I don't trust it...

But the most likely places to start is your memory, usage, and virtual memory...

Have you switched off programs that load when starting up? Also what programs do you have installed? Bloatware is where I'm going with this......

Edit- Ill send you a link in chat

I would also (after reinstalling the OS, which, you might as well just do at this point really, sometimes it's just time to do it and it seems like that is where you're at, it's not a bad thing, it will be refreshing!), do a fresh install of your games+programs and put them on separate hard drives (from each other and from the OS, I wouldn't put any programs on the OS drive, just make the partition big enough +15% extra HD space free for the OS install and it's functions.) Only do programs you really need and use too.

Ok, changed power setting to Balanced, and I'm now going through my Installed programs to see what I can get rid of. Let's see how things run after I finish that and reboot.

It's not installed programs that's the problem, it's which are loading/starting up. Your specs are also pretty low. What temperatures are you getting and what items are in your startup/processes/service tabs?

After 4 years it's a good idea to reinstall the OS. A lot of garbage piles up in the registry over time which slows down the computer inevitably. The little tweaks (defragmentation, CCleaner) will probably make no big difference.

I'd recommend to upgrade to Windows 10. It runs super fast even on older PCs.

Upgrade to Windows 10 and reset everything through Win10's menu. Will be as good as new, as long as there's no hardware problem.

I've sped up a couple of older laptops for coworkers just by eliminating redundant programs. Often I've found multiple virus programs or spyware checkers running at the same time. One installed from the beginning and another by their Internet provider for example.

So even if you want to keep malware and anti-virus running, make sure you only have one of each...but even then, I'd probably turn off any "active protection" while playing CPU intensive games...just remember to turn it back on when you are done.

Just wanted to echo that Windows 10 is ALOT faster than 7 on bootup. Once you disable the majority of the telemetry (using a program like Shut Up 10), you won't want to go back to 7 unless you like the Aero Glass (which to admit is nice), because it's so much quicker and everything is in one place.

I didn't find it that different in the beginning, but now with all of the new features, I'm beginning to warm up to it.

The speed is the biggest factor. Everything is so much smoother because they've really optimized the underlying systems.

Clean the dust.

After that many years a clean install of the OS is probably better than wasting a lot of time troubleshooting it for minimal benefit.

I have no issues with Windows 10 on my 5 year old laptop and it's pretty speedy compared to 7.

I also like Windows 10 and it does seem pretty snappy, yet you do need to consider how many of your games are not compatible past Windows 7 yet. If you have another computer to run them, great, I say do it, but there are a number of games which have never quite \worked right since 8.1 came out too.

For me, it was a no-brainer, as I still my old Vista computer handy if a game doesn't work on later operating systems.

Well, that certainly helped quite a bit! Now it's just a tad slow, but the CPU usage has decreased dramatically! Thank you!

Gonna look into reinstalling the OS now, because I figure it can't hurt!