browsers open extremely slowly

When I click on a browser icon (IE, Firefox, or Chrome), either nothing happens at all, or else it "lights up" for a couple of seconds. It doesn't stay defined. It usually takes 2 to 3 minutes, sometimes longer, for the browser to open. Of course, if I click more than once, once it does open, I get a window for each time I clicked.

I emphasize that this happens with all browsers. On the internet, I found a lot of stuff about how to address the issue with particular browsers, but the fact that it happens across the board makes me think it's a system issue.

A couple of weeks ago I had my HD "cleaned" (OS reinstalled) and it didn't improve this in the slightest. The guys at the shop I took it to insist I don't have any hardware issues.

Tech Support Guy System Info Utility version 1.0.0.4
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Service Pack 1, 64 bit
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU B960 @ 2.20GHz, Intel64 Family 6 Model 42 Stepping 7
Processor Count: 2
RAM: 4043 Mb
Graphics Card: Intel(R) HD Graphics Family, 1797 Mb
Hard Drives: C: 297 GB (249 GB Free);
Motherboard: TOSHIBA, Portable PC
Antivirus: Avast Antivirus, Enabled and Updated

 

How does it perform in safe mode? Have you tried resetting your browsers to defaults?

 

They open right away in safe mode.

 

Okay, have you tried resetting them to defaults?

Right click on diag.txt
Select Save link as from the menu
Save to your desktop
Rename the file to diag.bat
Double click on the file to Run
Once it is finished it will create a SystemDiagnostics folder on your desktop
Compress the folder to a .zip file
Upload to your reply

How to Compress/Uncompress .Zip files

 

I tried resetting the browser settings to defaults. They still open extremely slowly if I'm not in Safe Mode.

I tried downloading the diag.txt file onto my computer. What gets saved is an HTML file. If I right-click to rename, the file name gets changed to diag.bat.htm. The Rename function doesn't give me an option to change the file extension. So I tried changing the file extension when I downloaded using the Save File As function. I changed it to diag.bat and chose All Files in the file extension dropdown box. What gets saved is a plain text file, not an executable.

 

I am not sure why it isn’t working. Enclosed is the file to download directly and then rename.

 

Here you go.

 

I will go over your files while you wait please try the following and see if there is also improvement and let me know.

Follow the steps in the link below:
Windows Clean Boot

 

Problem is unchanged after a clean boot.

 

Please uninstall Avsst as follows and test

https://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility

 

That seems to have fixed it. Thanks for your help! And BTW, do you have any recommendations for an antivirus program that won't cause these kinds of problems? (Preferably free, but I'll pay if that's necessary to get a product that won't gunk up my system.)

 

I agree with MSE, a good ad blocker and malwarebytes free or super anti spyware for weekly scans.

The integrated Windows antivirus programs are far lighter on resources and do not contain any of the extra junkware, ads, or paid upgrades like other antivirus programs. Most importantly, since it is made by Microsoft as part of the system it doesn't need work-arounds or hooks into your system, so its actually safer and provides better performance than other antivirus programs.