One word: crapware.
The following recommendations would help increase performance by a substantial amount:
- Uninstall all crapware or anything else you don't think you need
- Uninstall your anti-virus (real shock, but I assure you there is a justified explanation, located below*)
- Turn off Windows Defender
- Turn off any other Windows features that you don't need
*Why you should uninstall anti-virus software: Most users who browse the web in an intelligent manner do not need anti-virus software. Most malware comes from sites that can be easily avoided by using intelligence, i.e. don't click on anything that looks nearly suspicious, don't download mindlessly, think outside the box, install Ad-Block plus, etc.. I've been anti-virus free for at least two years now on the same machine, and I've only stumbled across 1 virus that was easily destroyed by a free VIPRE Rescue Scanner; it doesn't run on your computer, only needs to run on flash drive to work - like a temporary anti-virus solution. However, I still recommend scanning your computer ideally every other month with a free scanner that doesn't install.
Also, when you do said recommendations, you'll see a performance increase that is very noticeable. Think of anti-viruses as getting a lot of morphine: morphine does the job against infections and bacteria, but weakens the immune system, causes you to age faster, and gets worse over time with more injections. Only way to really prevent the computer virus is making sure it doesn't get there in the first place; in order to do that, you only need smart web browsing. If you have that, that is the only protection you will need.
EDIT: I know this comes from a tech-savvy perspective, but regardless, the solutions can be done on any Microsoft based operating system machine, and you don't have to be tech-savvy. Best of all, you don't need to install any software to do said recommendations!