To start, go into the Cortana / Windows search box and type in “background apps”:Īs you can see, Win10 search saves the day yet again, offering up the option of “ Choose which apps can run in the background“.
If that’s not the culprit - and you should also check for unauthorized new toolbars in your browser, by the way! - then another possibility is that the programs you’ve legitimately installed are all running in the background even when you’re not using them. Don’t have one? Check out Windows Defender, included from Microsoft with Windows 8 and Windows 10, or PCMatic, a third-party antivirus app). Not good.įortunately, it sounds like you’ve done the right thing and run some malware and anti-virus software (really, anyone who is running Microsoft Windows and isn’t running an antivirus program is playing with fire.
Particularly in the Windows world, it’s amazing how many Web sites and email attachments there are that seem hell-bent on slipping their “innocuous” little app or utility onto your system and then making your computer less secure, sharing your data or even making you part of a so-called botnet. Whenever I hear about a computer that’s slowing down, whether it’s a Mac or Windows machine, I always suspect that there’s malicious software that’s slipped onto the drive.
