Windows 11 running slow

[SDO]

I’m writing this from work so unfortunately i don’t have ALL the specs, but from memory, here goes…

Basically the computer is super-slow, not even a year old. browsing the internet is slow, heck, even loading the browser is slow! we have high speed fios and i don’t have this problem w/my macs so i know it’s not the connection. He primarily uses the PC for gaming. I don’t want to name names because i think that might be what got me flagged as “spam”. what i will say is that based on the system requirements of the games he plays, he meets or exceeds the demands of a given game.

Even trying to load google chrome for his schoolwork is slow. same w/loading youtube. just all-round SLOW. he’s running windows 11 Home. he has 32 gigabytes of ram and the processor is an i5. let me know if more specific info is needed. thanks,

[Malnutrition]

We can check the machine for malware if you wish, even if malware is not the case we can work on speed issues.

Create a new thread by clicking the link below.

https://pchelpforum.net/f/malware-removal.53/post-thread

[Malnutrition]

Or I can just move this over.

[SDO]

Or I can just move this over.

that would be great, thanks

[Malnutrition]

Please download the FRST 32 bit or FRST 64bit version to suit your operating system. It is important FRST is downloaded to your desktop.

If you are unsure if your operating system is 32 or 64 Bit please go HERE.
Once downloaded right click the FRST desktop icon and select “Run as administrator” from the menu"
[IMG alt=“icon2.jpg”]https://pchelpforum.net/attachments/icon2-jpg.794/
If you receive any security warnings, or the User Account Control warning opens at any time whilst using FRST you can safely allow FRST to proceed.
FRST will open with two dialogue boxes, accept the disclaimer.
[IMG alt=“frst disclaimer.jpg”]https://pchelpforum.net/attachments/...aimer-jpg.795/
[ol]
[li]Accept the default whitelist options,[/li][li]If the additions.txt options box is not checked please select it.[/li][li]Then select Scan[/li][/ol]
[IMG alt=“frst.jpg”]https://pchelpforum.net/attachments/frst-jpg.796/
Frst will take a few minutes to scan your computer, and when finished will produce two log files on your desktop, FRST.txt, and Addition.txt. They will display immediately on the desktop, but can be reopened later as a notepad file.
[IMG alt=“2016-08-12_152002.jpg”]https://pchelpforum.net/attachments/...52002-jpg.797/
Please Attach the contents of these logs in your next post for review by our Security Team, if you are unable to attach copy and paste is fine.[/IMG]

[SDO]

okay, hopefully this supplies clues. thanks!

[Malnutrition]

These logs will take me a while to go over, so please run these two tools while I check things out.

Adware Cleaner

[ul]
[li]Download AdwCleaner and save it to your Desktop[/li][li]Right-click on AdwCleaner.exeand select [IMG alt=“Spcusrh.png”]https://i.imgur.com/Spcusrh.png Run as Administrator[/li][li]Accept the EULA (I accept), then click on Scan Now[/li][li]Let the scan complete[/li][li]Once the scan completes, make sure that every item listed in the different tabs is checked and click on the Clean & Repair button[/li][li]Subsequently you may be asked to Run Basic Repair. This is optional. I would suggest holding off on this for now.[/li][li]Once the cleaning process is complete, AdwCleaner will ask you to restart your computer[/li][li]Close all other open windows and allow it to restart[/li][li]After the restart, Notepad will open with the AdwCleaner cleaning log[/li][li]Please Attach the contents of that log into your next reply to me[/li][/ul]

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ZHP cleaner Scan.

Please download Zhp Cleaner to your desktop. Right Click the icon and select run as administrator.
Once you have started the program, you will need to click the scanner button.
The program will close all open browsers!
Once the scan is completed, the you will want to click the Repair button.
At the end of the process you may be asked to reboot your machine.
After you reboot a report will open on your desktop.
Attach the report here in your next reply.[/IMG]

[Malnutrition]

Just while we work on this machine, please remove Kaspersky, you can re install it after we are done here, it just makes things easier.

Uninstall Kaspersky with Geek Uninstaller.
Then run the removal tool found by clicking here.
Reboot the machine, then follow the steps below.

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Download AV block remover .
Unzip to your desktop, Right click run as admin and follow the instructions. If it does not start, rename the AVbr.exe file to, for example, AV_br.exe
Click yes to reset hosts file.
After the machine reboots then there will be a logfile in the new folder created, post that please.

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FRST Fix.

Download attached fixlist.txt file and save it to the Desktop. NOTE. It’s important that both files, FRST/FRST64 and fixlist.txt are in the same location or the fix will not work. NOTICE: This script was written specifically for this user, for use on that particular machine. Running this on another machine may cause damage to your operating system Run FRST/FRST64 and press the Fix button just once and wait. If for some reason the tool needs a restart, please make sure you let the system restart normally. After that let the tool complete its run. When finished FRST will generate a log on the Desktop (Fixlog.txt). Please post it to your reply.

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Let me know how the machine is running now.

[SDO]

Just while we work on this machine, please remove Kaspersky, you can re install it after we are done here, it just makes things easier.

Uninstall Kaspersky with Geek Uninstaller.
Then run the removal tool found by clicking here.
Reboot the machine, then follow the steps below.

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Download AV block remover .
Unzip to your desktop, Right click run as admin and follow the instructions. If it does not start, rename the AVbr.exe file to, for example, AV_br.exe
Click yes to reset hosts file.
After the machine reboots then there will be a logfile in the new folder created, post that please.

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FRST Fix.

Download attached fixlist.txt file and save it to the Desktop. NOTE. It’s important that both files, FRST/FRST64 and fixlist.txt are in the same location or the fix will not work. NOTICE: This script was written specifically for this user, for use on that particular machine. Running this on another machine may cause damage to your operating system Run FRST/FRST64 and press the Fix button just once and wait. If for some reason the tool needs a restart, please make sure you let the system restart normally. After that let the tool complete its run. When finished FRST will generate a log on the Desktop (Fixlog.txt). Please post it to your reply.

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Let me know how the machine is running now.

okay, i’m officially in over my head being a lifelong Mac guy. only reason i’m messing w/a PC is my son wants to game. i was able to do the AdwClean which i’ve attached. i uninstalled kasper sky but zhp cleaner is a no-go. i do what instructed and it takes me to a page in a foreign language where the only thing in english is a download button but the download button only installs a yahoo search tool…which doesn’t seem right at all. then when i went to install av block remover i was met with more issues. namely a message that says “it has been run from temporary folder. {temp} Perhaps you have not extracted it from the archinve. Please extract the AVbr to any convenient place then run AVbr again” i’m officially lost. starting to wonder if wiping the drive and starting from scratch is a quicker/easier option?

up above you wrote,“Run FRST/FRST64 and press the Fix button just once and wait” I had to go searching for it and when i opened it, it didn’t work because it said that frst.txt wasn’t in the same place…but it IS. they’re both on the desktop. i don’t get it.

[SDO]

okay, i think i was able to run FRST/FRST64 “correctly”. fix log is attached. hopefully i didn’t muck it all up by running it without having run zhp cleaner for reasons given in my previous post above.

[SDO]

Okay, as of right now the computer is night and day faster than before. My son had huge smile on his face and for that I thank you!

Given the good news, do you think it’s still worth figuring out how to get zip cleaner to run? If not, am I safe to reinstall the Kaspersky antivirus protection? Speaking of that, do antivirus apps make performance sluggish? Is there anything we can do to be proactive to ensure this doesn’t happen again any time soon?

I’m cautiously optimistic right now. We’ll see how it performs when he gets back on it tomorrow. Thanks again!

[Malnutrition]

You can skip ZHP cleaner and AVBR. I think we can forgo those tools in this situation. Simply dragging the .exe of each file onto the desktop should do the trick, but as I said we can skip if it is a headache for you. As a final check for anything that I may have missed, please run malwarebytes antimalware.

do antivirus apps make performance sluggish?

With the built in windows defender that is all that is really needed, just need to be careful downloading things. Also, I’d install Ublock Origin. Also, have your son scan anything he downloads on his computer at VirusTotal before opening it,(executing the file).

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Disable windows 10 spyware with O&O software, this can chew up bandwidth while you game as microsoft is constantly uploading various data from your machine.

Disable windows update, and only enable it once a week to update on your terms not whenever microsoft feels you need an update.

Uninstall Useless to you windows apps with O&O App buster.

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Download Malwarebytes v.4 . Install and run.

[ul]
[li]Once the MBAM dashboard opens, click on Settings (gear icon).[/li][li]Click on Security tab and make sure that all four Scan options are enabled.[/li][li]Close Settings and click on the Scan button on the dashboard.[/li][li]Once the scan is completed make sure you have it quarantine any detections it finds.[/li][li]If no detections were found click on the Save results drop-down, then the Export to TXT button and save the file as a Text file to your desktop.[/li][li]If there were detections then once the quarantine has completed click on the View report button, then click the Export drop-down, then the Export to TXT button, and save the file as a Text file to your desktop or other location you can find and attach that log on your next reply.[/li][li]If the computer restarted to quarantine you can access the logs from the Detection History, then the History tab. Highlight the most recent scan and double-click to open it. Then click the Export drop-down, then the Export to TXT button, and save the file as a Text file to your desktop or other location you can find and include that log on your next reply.[/li][/ul]

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Security Check Scan.

[ul]
[li]Download Security Check to your desktop.[/li][li]Right click it run as administrator.[/li][li]When the program completes, the tool will automatically open a log file.[/li][li]Please Copy and paste that log here in your next post[/li][/ul]

[SDO]

Okay, will do all this when i get home. You mentioned Windows Defender, which I was totally unaware of being built in to Windows 11 Home. So for the last year and a half, Kaspersky was a waste of money i presume? Not to mention a possible detriment to the PC’s performance.

[SDO]

“Uninstall Useless to you windows apps with O&O App buster.” Is there any way i can get into trouble doing this by potentially deleting something that was actually essential to the PC’s performance? Many apps will be obvious to me, not being a PC guy, is there anything in particular i want to leave alone/unchecked?

[Malnutrition]

It also gives the option to restore anything deleted. None of these are essential for operating systems