Poor performing computer

Hello,

I have a Toshiba Satellite P50-A with an Intel Core i7-4700 CPU @2.40GHz, 12.0 GB of ram, Window 8.1 64 Bit, I don't have lots of software installed either but I have a feeling that it is the anti-virus making my HD run all the time because I noticed that the performance of my computer went down quite a bit after installing it, I'm using AVG. I also followed this tutorial for improving performance and it might of improved a little bit but nothing out of this world though. Does anyone have any more suggestions? Perhaps a different anti-virus or something else. Sometimes the HD works so hard that it gets to be really annoying.

Regards,
Ed

In Task Manager are there any processes running high and in the StartUp tab disable any unnecessary programs loading at boot.

You may run the Cleaner and Registry functions with CCleaner Free download from this site:
https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download

You could uninstall AVG if you feel that is the problem and just use built in Windows Defender or try another AV program like Avast Free.

Resource monitor can pinpoint which services or processes are hogging the disk, cup or memory resources. After a windows update, the defrag program and an automatic backup program makes my laptop unusable until these tasks finish.