What's making my Windows 7 PC run so slow?

Question

Today, my computer at work has been acting very slow. There seems to be a lot of lag that occurs between certain operations. For example, when one window has the focus and you click on another window, it's supposed to switch over to it and highlight it instantly. However, there's a slight bit of lag between the switching of focus and I can actually see window being redrawn as it applies the new active window styles. When I maximize windows, it's all chunky-like as it redraws the window to adjust all menus to fit the new maximized state.

I've checked task manager and don't see any processes consuming excessive memory and my CPU is spiking at no higher than 3%.

Are there processes that can be installed that don't show up in the task manager? For example, could my employer have secretly installed some key logger or screen capture software that would obviously not be very secretive if it showed up in the task manager?

I've even rebooted my computer and it's still acting sluggish. It just started today. What can I do to really analyze the usage of my system resources?

Edit: It's a quad core i7 870 @ 2.93ghz w/ 8 gigs of ram.

Solution

You can try using Process Explorer to help isolate any rogue processes. It could also be spyware and or a virus on your system. If you are running any antivirus or antispyware programs I would suggest making sure they are up to date and try to run some scans.

Another possibility is it could be hardware related. You can try booting off of your Windows 7 disk or another utility disk like UBCD and running some diagnostic scans. Things to try would be Memtest86+ and any hard drive S.M.A.R.T. tests, in addition to scanning for viruses/spyware.

Comments

[Breakthrough]

Grab Process Explorer, and see if any processes have unusually high I/O counts, threads, or working set sizes.

[Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007]

Is it still slow if running in Safe Mode? Did you run the Task Manager as an administrator (click "Show Processes from All Users")? If not, you'll only see your own processes. Does Windows' built-in "Resource Monitor" show you anything odd?

[Ravindra Bawane]

This computer is at work. It's highly unlikely he has a Windows 7 disk or administrator access to the box.

[sbtkd85]

Sorry I missed that part about it being a work computer the first time around. You won't be able to do much if its a work computer. If it keeps up, I'd ask your IT department if they can take a look at it for you.

[oscilatingcretin]

I actually do have admin rights here, but it turns out I didn't need to go that route.