"Louis Fabron" wrote in message news

I have a slow desktop where I may just reinstall Windows 10 which is
probably the best way to fix it.

But if I can't easily reinstall Windows 10 I'll run some malware scans but
they make me crazy by false reports (for example, malwarebytes flags the
common mvp hosts file as trojan.agent malware).

The windows malicious software removal tool heuristics found uninstalled
programs as malware, so, that's not useful either (as they were automatic
hostname changers).

Can you give me advice on some of the best free Windows 10 malware checkers
to try next that don't have so many false flag reports?


Before others have you running off in 10 directions loading up a live distro
(Linux) to narrow down the problem - try some of these steps first.

1. Do you know if the system is slow because of malware or has it run Win10
faster in the past?
2. MalwareBytes may be giving a false positive so I would make sure you are
running the latest version. If it still hits on the host file then maybe it
has a URL in it that is on a blacklist. I would let MalwareBytes quarantine
whatever it finds and see's if that improves performance.
3. I would also recommend you run Norton Power Eraser - it's free
https://us.norton.com/support/tools/npe.html

There are many other steps that can be done to verify what your system is
doing and why and you are about to get a whole lot of those ideas from
others - so try the easy stuff first.

One step you should perform when trying to determine performance issues is
to minimize the system to the bare necessities. Remove USB connections,
network connections and take out any add-on boards that may have been
installed as well as reduce the memory sticks (if possible) installed and
swapping those around to see if they influence performance before you resort
to reinstalling Win10.

You may have to in the end but at least try to understand why that step is
necessary.
--


Bob S.