Laptop running slowly
 

I am using a different laptop today, and it is running very slowly

I open up the task manager window, and there are about 98 processes running. If I go through and do the "end process" button on all of them, and restart the computer, do the necessary processes for the system to run automatically restart when I do this?

Just restart the machine. The processes required by the operating system and any load-on-startup application will automatically start.

Manually killing processes is tricky, could lose unsaved files, make system non-responsive, etc. You'd have to research what each process is.

If you haven't used it in a while, it could just be running stuff in the background that is overdue (file indexing, defrag, OS updates, security scan, etc.). You might manually check for updates and let everything run it's course if there are any.
Then restart, and let it sit for a while (plugged in) to do it's thang. Just make sure to disable/extend the sleep/hibernate timer.

I noticed while windows is downloading the upgrade the computer was pretty sluggish.. that lasted for a few days, then the upgrade was applied and is back to normal performance.

First save all important info to external drive or USB stick.

Do a start/run/msconfig-startup or services.msc to see what is automatically loading at startup.
Kill startups very very carefully.
Create a backup point first just in case.

Make sure the disk drive is ok with checkdisk https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-run-chkdsk

Make sure drivers are updated.
I got rid of Conexant because of possible keystroke logging, and installed Realtek audio driver instead.

Use free MSSE or Malwarebytes with rootkit scan or other virus software.
Windows Defender should be built in but is lightweight.
I use free Spybot S&D also.

Use https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner or other and then do a defrag every night about 150 times until it can't take any more.
https://download.cnet.com/Puran-Utilities/3000-2094_4-75764049.html was lightweight and computer seemed to run zippy after.

Right click the Computer icon on desktop, chose properties, and chose Windows Experience Index to see what is part is slowest.

Press control+alt+del to get Task Manager, find the Resources button, and look at what is using all the CPU/memory/disk.


(btw I am a monkey and should not give computer advice)