Slow computers, what do you do?

I call it SCS. Slow computer syndrome. I would like to know what you do when your Windows PC gets slow. Although it seldom happens to me now, it used to happen a lot in the past. It may be that anti-virus software has gotten better or that there are less out there. People are also more PC savvy and protect their PCs better,

I usually have a safe point to go back and delete all installations I have made after that point. I have been disciplined for many years in writing down the date when I install programs and the name and place where they are installed. That has helped me to pinpoint possible problematic dates. A notebook only for that is always on my desk. I can also look at Safari’s (for Windows) download feature and it shows me what I have downloaded.

A monthly virus scan and defragmentation helps to keep my PC running clean and smoothly. Cleaning cluterring files and unnesary histories, help. But this is just the basics, sometimes no matter what you do something gets in that starts to slow down your computer. 

I wish there was one key (like in a Mac) that  would make the computer start without all those memory hungry  processes so we could diagnose things; or at least  run  the PC free of interfering objects. That would make sense as an enhancement to any OS.  One could define two (or several) configurations and start the PC from any of them with a touch of a key.

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