Currently just running Microsoft security essential. I don't think I have any viruses, but something is taking almost 10 minutes every morning and slowing the computer down to a crawl. At this point in the day everything seems to be running fine. I just can't figure out what the comp is doing while that hard drive light stays on continually.
You need to check your task scheduler. So many crapware titles put scheduled startup tasks to check for updates that eventually you get the 10 minute startup hang. Each scheduled task that runs at startup delays startup until it completes, and if the item has a 2 minute (very common) response timer then it doesn't take more than 2 or 3 of those to lock up your machine for a while at boot. Google loves to put tasks that run at startup and have 2 minutes to fail, so find and turn those off. Java and Adobe is another (flash, shockwave etc). Makes a huge difference.
The other issue that is related is that if you use wifi (can happen with ethernet), Windows is trying to check for updates before it loads your network interface. Since the network interface isn't loaded, the update checker locks the boot process up until its failure timer expires (the 2 minutes mentioned above). When you boot your machine and you first see your desktop, your network should come up within a few seconds or there is a problem. The best cure, again, is to disable automatic updates and clear out scheduled tasks that occur at boot.
There are other areas that can slow it down, such as unnecessary processes that start with the machine so you can search for those and shut them down.
Security Essentials should be fine for virus detecting until it is no longer supported. Never use AVG, it will cause untold problems. Malware Bytes is evolving into bloatware, shame.
The quickest and easiest way to verify your machine is indeed affected by crapware startup issues is to boot into safe mode with networking and see how fast it loads. Hit F8 when you power on until you see the screen where you choose how to boot. This will load windows with your network active but nothing else. Should load in under 20 seconds unless you have a very slow hard drive.
