Slow PC Diagnostic
"My PC is slow" usually means one of a few genuinely different things — gradual slowdown, sudden freezing, or one specific resource maxed out. Answer honestly (a couple of these questions ask you to check Task Manager, which only takes a second) and you'll land on the guide that actually fits.
Is it slow all the time, or does it run fine and then suddenly freeze or stutter at random moments?
This is a different pattern from general slowness — go straight to our PC randomly freezes or stutters guide, which covers causes specific to sudden freezes rather than gradual slowdown.
Move to the next question — a quick Task Manager check narrows this down fast.
Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) and check the Performance tab — is CPU usage stuck near 100%?
Go straight to our CPU usage stuck at 100% guide — it covers finding which specific process is responsible and what to do about it.
Move to the next question.
While you're in Task Manager, is Disk usage stuck near 100% instead?
Go straight to our Disk usage stuck at 100% guide — a different cause and fix path from high CPU usage, even though both feel the same from the outside (everything just lags).
If nothing's obviously pegged but it's still slow, the cause is probably more general — too many startup programs, low disk space, or gradual buildup over time. Our general "PC has gotten noticeably slower" guide covers the broadest set of causes and is the right next step.