My laptop is extremely slow on all sites, not just DU. I did a recovery yesterday but didn't help. Any suggestions?

[SheilaAnn]

[Fullduplexxx]

1. defrag and clean up then check for mal ware

[hlthe2b]

2. Step 1 is probably to check your wifi speed. Some carriers/providers throttle during busy periods...

I've noticed a slowdown during a few hours on the weekends--even if they claim otherwise.

Here is a link to a Xfinity test (should work with any provider, though)..
https://speedtest.xfinity.com/

If adequate than I'd agree with the first poster as to next steps...

[SheilaAnn]

3. Many thanks.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. Check your memory usage and running processes

If you have multiple tabs open in the browser, close them, particularly if they are feeds like stock tickers or streaming.

Use your Resource Monitor or equivalent to look at CPU usage, physical memory usage, and hard faults. What kind of readings are you getting there?

You don't give the single most important piece of info when asking for computer help: Your OS and version. Are you running Windows 95 or some hot Mac OS or some weird Linux variant or what? After 40 years of personal computers I would hope that people would know to do that.

[BootinUp]

5. Probably the hard drive is being overtaxed. Total guess though.

If you watch task manager (get there with CTRL-ALT DELETE and select task manager) is the hard disk drive registering close to 100% activity?

If yes then run disk cleanup (search for it in the seach bar) right click on "disk cleanup" and run as administrator. If you are running it as administrator it is safe to select all options to clean. There is another cleanup option from Settings->System->Storage->Temporary files, does the same thing.

With disk cleanup running as administrator there is a more options tab where you can also opt to remove restore points and disk shadow copies.

After the cleanup, force a full system maintenance cycle:
Control Panel->All Control Panel Items->Security and Maintenance, click on maintenace drop down and then click on start maintenance.

[Ponietz]

6. Unplug your router -- wait 2 minutes-- replug

BEFORE proceeding onto other suggestions.

[usonian]

7. Could be too many processes running, or resource hogs like facebook eating up your CPU, or

even your DNS setting (a bit techie) but know that there are DNS providers (name servers) that aren't your default ISP's.

examples: https://www.techradar.com/news/best-dns-server

A slow name server will slow down every internet access.

Or proxies and so on (DId I set up a proxy?)

But try those "in the computer" ones first.

[Tetrachloride]

8. The browser "Brave" is recommended. Ad-blocking included and more. Fine tuning can come later

1. Turn off computer. Turn off router. Wait 30-60 seconds.
2. Turn on router. Wait 30 seconds.
3. Turn on computer
4. Try your browser now.
5. Download and use Brave browser. Compare your current browser and Brave for speed and appearance.

[SheilaAnn]

9. Many thanks.