General

@xipwnux99: Run the Optimizer.

@onigiri123: Bitdefender found nothing

@xipwnux99: Right!

Let me know how it goes!

@onigiri123: Yeah, I must have changed that myself, because I'm pretty sure it wouldn't default to daily. Which would mean its kind of sad that I completely forgot how to defrag using windows

Defender is really bad at virus detection. Its the reason a lot of people write it off entirely. And as for real-time protection, well, Windows Firewall hasn't improved very much.

I will post back (or edit this post, if I can't make another post) with scan results from Bitdefender whenever it finishes scanning.

@xipwnux99:
That's good. Take your time because Defragging can take a while if you have a lot of things on your comp.

Optimally, you should defrag every fortnight/month rather than daily.

Windows Defender is useless IMO

Bitdefender will be your main anti-virus and it will disable Windows Defender to make sure there are no clashes.

@onigiri123: OK, I will install, Bitdefender, but the Malwarebytes scan might have to wait until I have A LOT of time to use this computer, on average a Malwarebytes scan takes 3 hours on this computer. I have the defrag schedule set to daily and the fragmentation on the HDD and dvd drive is 0%. When I say Windows Defender, its pretty much a pre-installed Security Essentials but I will still use the Bitdefender key, since I know Bitdefender is a very good antivirus.

@xipwnux99:
Search defrag (win8->mouse pointer to the top right corner)
Click on Defrag and Optimize drives.
Proceed to analyse and defrag.

No point in using Windows Defender as your primary defence.
I'll PM you a BitDefender Key and the instructions on installation.

What I want you to do in the meantime is run a malware scan with Malwarebytes just to make sure you don't have anything nasty causing your system to slow down.
I would also like you to run a scan with Bitdefender after you've installed it and updated the virus definitions.

Then, on Bitdefender, click on Optimise and let it run.

@onigiri123: I am not running an SSD. I have a 5400 RPM 500 GB HDD. I am using Chrome in desktop mode.

Really there is no true "Top 3" in terms of hardware usage. Its just Chrome and sometimes System uses a lot of the disk.

I don't know how to defrag my hard drive using Windows, and the only anti-virus I'm running right now is Windows Defender, which comes pre-installed in all Windows 8 computers.

@xipwnux99:

Sweet, that helps a lot.

Can you tell me if you're using a SSD in your laptop?
Furthermore, as you're running Chrome on Win8, are you using it in Win8 mode/the Win8 app?

Give me an indication of your Task Manager stats? CPU and RAM's top 3

Things you can do passively, set a defragging schedule.

Are you running an anti-virus right now?

[quote=onigiri123]Chrome runs a separate process for each tab open so close any that you don't use. Bookmark pages rather than keeping them open.

Check your start-up processes too and make sure no idle programs are lurking around when not in use. ie: Hamachi, Skype

Also recommend you look at your browser plug-ins and remove any you don't need. My bro's comp uses Avast Free and the browser plug in for that should be disabled.

In terms of anti-virus, BitDefender Internet Security has promotion codes for the pro version for a certain amount of time. I have a spare 9 month key for the 2015 version if you need. It includes an optimizer so you don't need to bloat your computer up with more third party processes.[/quote]

Most of the startup processes I got rid of a while ago. I don't have Avast anymore, and I got rid of that plugin along with it. It would be helpful if I had that key but I don't know how well it'll do me.

@Chromatim: That's alright, I wasn't expecting too many accurate answers because of that. As I've found most of the principles remain similar, its process of getting to what I need to do that's probably different. If you can't help anymore its okay. One good thing about Windows 8 at least is that I can disable startup programs much easier using task manager rather than msconfig.

@xipwnux99: Ah sorry then, I'm not too knowledgable about Windows 8. Last bit of advice is to try a defrag on your hard drive, it may boost startup speeds a bit. I guess disable any startup programs using Ccleaner or msconfig, but other than that, I don't know

Chrome runs a separate process for each tab open so close any that you don't use. Bookmark pages rather than keeping them open.

Check your start-up processes too and make sure no idle programs are lurking around when not in use. ie: Hamachi, Skype
EDIT: you said you're running Win8, so go Task Manager and look at the "start up" tab and disable the unneeded apps.

Also recommend you look at your browser plug-ins and remove any you don't need. My bro's comp uses Avast Free and the browser plug in for that should be disabled.

In terms of anti-virus, BitDefender Internet Security has promotion codes for the pro version for a certain amount of time. I have a spare 9 month key for the 2015 version if you need. It includes an optimizer so you don't need to bloat your computer up with more third party processes.

@Chromatim: That diagnostic startup, yes, was a surprisingly good sign. I have 4GB of RAM, and I'm running Windows 8, which comes with a pre-installed with Windows Defender, and to my knowledge I can't uninstall it. The only plugin in Chrome that I have is Adblock (not pro, just the basic version). My plugins are up to date, that shouldn't be a problem.

Since I don't know what I should be looking for in the cmd results I would need some more information on that. When I tried ipconfig /flushdns it says it successfully flushed the DNS Revolver Cache.

@xipwnux99: So the diagnostic startup was a good sign? If so, uninstall any and all antivirus you have installed, even Microsoft Security Essentials. From there we can start teasing out any malignant processes. I know Google Chrome will be a resource hog, with multiple chrome.exe processes (for whatever reason). Also, do check Google Chrome for any unwanted/unnecessary add ons.

Next thing you can do is updating any plugins, like Adobe Flash, Java, etc. Afterward you can run cmd and type in "ipconfig /renew" followed by "ipconfig /flushdns". This may solve any network issues in the settings

Also, May I Ask how much ram is in your system, as well as the operating system? Reason being is that I find that 2GB for Win7 isn't nearly as sufficient as it should be. I have a work computer that I use that runs 2GB Win7 32 bit, and even at barebones, the system is using 0.8 - 1.3 GB RAM. But this is just personal experience

[quote=Chromatim]Run 'msconfig' and do a diagnostic startup. If it runs fine, then it's a software problem. From there, start determining what software is hogging your resources. Check background processes on a normal startup, and turn them off or uninstall any unnecessary programs (TuneUp, AVG, Avast, etc)[/quote]

I did the diagnostic startup (Thanks, I didn't know about this) and it ran exactly the way it did as in a normal boot. The only thing using RAM significantly is Chrome, which ranges anywhere from 70-150mb for a YouTube video. It sits at about 30-45% when using Chrome. My disk usage is at about 0% when I launch task manager and then randomly increases to 15%. The CPU usage is 46% when I open task manager and then goes to 12% and then almost immediately after that 6%.

And also anyone telling me to run CCleaner or clean my browser cache, I've done this multiple times, and again it helps for a bit, but after about 2-3 hours it goes back to how it was. And even then the help wasn't much.

Run 'msconfig' and do a diagnostic startup. If it runs fine, then it's a software problem. From there, start determining what software is hogging your resources. Check background processes on a normal startup, and turn them off or uninstall any unnecessary programs (TuneUp, AVG, Avast, etc)

Did you try using CCleaner?