Windows 8.1

[jennyjoan]

Above has slowed down immensely - what should I delete to clear up disk space etc. thanks JjCon Also my top line of the page has disappeared - when I hit top of page randomly the tope line then appears - how do I keep it there - thanks again.

[hc4361]

Press F11 to get the top of the page back

[janbee]

Do you mean your toolbar has disappeared? Move cursor up to right hand top and then right click. You'll get the drop down options. Click on what you want to retain.

[jennyjoan]

got the page back - thanks hc

[ummmm]

And please stop signing off 'JjCon' it makes absolutely no sense to most people.

[jennyjoan]

I can do what I want UMMMM - you don't own the site.

[EcclesCake]

have you thought of upgrading to Win 10?

[jennyjoan]

No have just started using windows 8.1 and don't want anything to go wrong ie calling out IT people etc.

[ummmm]

Calm your jets...just a suggestion!! Jeez.

[EcclesCake]

Win10 is much more user friendly.

[murraymints]

jjcon is fine by me connie... Chris or Hans shoould be able to give good advice on clearing up disk space. xx

[jennyjoan]

thanks murray - you know who your friends are.

[EcclesCake]

You're welcome.

[ummmm]

Don't be so sensitive. You flounced in your 'Connemara' name and re-joined as 'jennyjoan'

Anyone that has joined this site since Feb would not have a clue what JjCon meant. It's confusing. You're jennyjoan now...not Con!

[jennyjoan]

no you are wrong Ummmm I did not flounce Connemmara - I very accidentally deactivated it. Please don't get your nickers in a twist over a name of a person you don't know and probably wouldn't want to know. Ta

[Buenchico]

JennyJoan:
Is it just your web browser where things have slowed down or is it everywhere?
i.e. do you only have problems when browsing the web or is everything still slow when you type letters, etc?

Either way, I doubt that your problem is caused by a lack of storage space on your hard drive, so deleting lots of stuff won't help. You've probably got a rogue program running that's taking up a lot of your computer's resources.

[jennyjoan]

Hi Chris - it just when I open up in the morning it can take up to 10 minutes. That would be it.

[Buenchico]

I strongly suspect that it's just your anti-virus program going through it's daily update process then. Some security programs are notorious for doing that.

Which security software do you use?

[jennyjoan]

avast

[Buenchico]

I use Avast precisely because (for me) it causes fewer problems when it updates than other free security programs do. However it can still slow everything to a crawl at times. (This computer is normally left on 24 hours per day, so that I don't have to worry about it updating everything when I turn it on; it's usually done that overnight anyway).

As soon as you turn your computer on, open the Task Manager (via right-clicking on the taskbar at the foot of your screen). Click on the 'Processes' tab and then on the button marked 'Show processes from all users'. (If you're asked for permission to proceed, grant it).

Look down the 'CPU' and 'Memory' columns to see if there are any particularly high numbers in either. I'd suspect that you'd see 'svchost. exe' has a very large figure alongside it in the 'Memory' column. (That shows that your computer is downloading something big). If so, take a careful look at the other figures in the 'Memory' column, to find one that keeps changing every second or two. (It doesn't have to be very big but those constant changes tell you that it's what's making the call on svchost.exe). I'd strongly expect that it will turn out to be AvastSve.exe, which is Avast's updater working.

If so, you could
(a) just live with it and accept it as an annoying part of needing security software ;
(b) try uninstalling Avast and reinstalling it ; or
(c) try another anti-virus program.

If you find that other programs have very high 'Memory' (or 'CPU') figures, let us know what they are as they rather than Avast, might be causing your problem.

[jennyjoan]

I'll copy your answer down on paper Chris - and follow it through either tonight or tomorrow as I have CU tonight. Thanks for going to all that trouble.