Windows 10 Task Manager Freeze Up

[Peripherie]

So I have a 1 1/2 year Windows 10 Dell PC. It came with Win 10 already installed. Anytime I need to access my Task Manager to close a program hanging up the task manager freezes: the computer continues to run but the task manager is slow and my mouse hangs up as I scroll across it. Selecting things and accessing the different menus lags big time. While it lagged the last time the CPU usage % never went above 13%. Except for a delay with my wifi which I think is an issue with my old router, I have no lag or slowing issues with my computer.

I did all the general computer cleaning/scanning things (that I know at least): anti-virus, spybot, defrag, disk cleanup, pair down my start up processes. Everything is the same.

I tried to google the problem and all I can find is issues when people upgraded to Win 10 from another version and the only fix was a complete wipe/re-install. I'm not sure I want to try going through those steps yet.

Any ideas from people who know computers much much better than I? (Which doesn't take much. :P) And if anyone has any of their 'go to' clean up things that a computer novice like me could use but I missed, I wouldn't mind hearing about those too for the future.

Thank you!
Peri

[strangeflower]

First question: Have you changed the refresh rate of the task manager (available in the drop down menus)? It doesn't sound like that's the problem, but still worth a try :)

Second question: Are you letting windows update itself? If not make sure everything is up to date. There might be a fix for what you are experiencing out there.

Third question: What kind of anti-virus are you using? There are some that messes considerably with your system. You might want to disable the AV and uninstalling it (good advice is to take your computer offline when you do that. Then see if the problem persists. If that solves the problem then find another AV otherwise reinstall the AV afterwards.