We have been limping along for years with Office 2000, re-installing it with each new computer (I know... yes, we're cheap! ) But recently we became involved in a class where we needed to download documents, so decided to upgrade. I downloaded and installed Office 2016 on Sunday evening. Yesterday everything seemed to be running quite slowly, but I had been doing quite a lot of work in Excel, so I thought I just needed a reboot. Last night I rebooted the system and the problem was immediately MUCH worse. Like, ridiculously agonizingly slow. It took 3-5 minutes to even open an application. Bizarre! Obviously, this can't go on.

I am running Windows 7, with Microsoft Security Essentials. I also ran Malwarebytes and found nothing. (Another note: I remember that I recently updated Malwarebytes...not sure exactly when. Could that contribute to the problem?) I have no idea what is going on, and it takes so long to do ANYthing that I just quit last night. Hoping that someone here will have some brilliant ideas for me to try, because this is almost unusable.

Interesting tidbit: Everything else I have done has taken forever, but logging in on this site (once it loaded) was immediate. Odd...

As a first step totally shut down the system, not just a reboot. Unplug from the wall and hit the power button a few times. Plug back in and start. If it is a laptop also remove the battery along with the AC adapter.

Also check to see how much free space is left on your hard drive. If under 10-15% free space it can slow things quite a bit.

How old is the system?

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Okay, I spent a lot less time getting here this time. Hopefully, that's all it needed. It still seems a bit slow, but maybe I'm just being uber-critical. I was able to check the free space finally, and I have 43% free, so that shouldn't be the problem. Thanks so much.

A question: Why does taking the battery out make a difference for this? I usually avoid that... I guess this is actually another post for another forum, but I have a problematic battery--sometimes just doesn't connect well--and right now I can't get it in right. When I unplug, it says that the battery level is dangerously low, even though I know it's fully charged. :/ Just an annoyance, because I've not had this problem for a month or more, but irritating, because now I have to mess with it for awhile until it gets seated right.

Unless you take out the battery the system is not truly without power. Only with all power removed will all the capacitors discharge. Capacitors are basically quick discharge batteries. They hold enough of a charge that you can unplug most desktop systems from the wall and the fans will still start to spin up if you hit the power button.

As to your battery issue it may just be dirty contacts, it's probably unlikely but possible. Lightly rubbing the contacts with a pencil eraser does a good job of cleaning.

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Thanks for that explanation! Appreciate your help so much!

No problem.

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I don't know if you ever mentioned the specs of your PC. How old is it, what's the processor, how much memory, what kind of drive? Any other security software besides MSE and Malwarebytes? Is the latter the free or Paid version? The paid version might be conflicting with MSE -- despite many reporting no issues with that pairing, when performance is suffering, I suspect a fight between real time protection modules.
Was the Office install an upgrade or clean install? Was Office 2K fully removed? Was the Office 2016 install from disc or click to run (downloaded and installed while online)?

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"