Really slow Acer Aspire One running on Windows 7

Hi,

I've had my laptop for 4 years and now it's been running really slow. Clicking on programs, even just the Menu, would usually take at least 10 seconds before anything happens. I've run the disk fragmenter, disk clean-up plus I've deleted and transferred A LOT of files. Now I have a free space of 187GB! Would it be because of a virus of some sort? I have Microsoft Essentials and I think it's been doing a good job... Does this mean I need to re-format my laptop already? I'm in the process of writing my thesis and this is making everything more stressful than it already is...

 

Have you tried the usual boot up in safe-mode and run Malware Anti-Malware? If not start with that and use CCLEANER if you are not familiar with 'msconfig' to reduce the programs that boot-up when you boot your laptop.

 

I haven't tried any of those yet. Thanks! Will update on how everything goes after.

 

No thank me yet. Not out of the woods yet. I'll keep an eye on my email for replies to this.

 

Guide to safely using CCleaner from TSG library in case it helps: http://library.techguy.org/wiki/CCleaner