Brand New Notebook 15 is stupid slow

[NeonPinkIcon]

 I have a brand new Notebook 15 that I bought in april 2017. I havent used it or put anything on it because it is so slow. Its been in the box, in storage since the day I got it. I got it for when I had to work from home and it was never possible. It would take a good 10 minutes to even open Google. Now that I am having to stay home, Im looking to get it going right. I think maybe it needs a memory upgrade, im not sure. I am not tech savy, but according to task manager, with nothing installed or downloaded to this laptop yet, not even pictures, it says 100% memory/ram is being used. 

[WAWood]

@NeonPinkIcon 

According to the specs, it came with WIn10 preloaded and if it has been turned off for a long time, when you NOW turn it on and connect it to the Internet, it's going to FORCE Windows Update to download and apply updates until it is done -- and that can take HOURS to finish.

With a Win10 PC, you're going to experience a variety of problems not typical of the older PCs.

First is sluggishness. You may experience a very slow PC at times because Windows Update (WU) is hogging your PC, searching for, downloading, and installing updates -- to bring your PC up to the most current version of Windows. This can also contribute significantly to high processor temperatures, as it is being heavily used.

Second is fan noise. That's directly related to fan speed, which is the result of processor heat, and WU is known to drive up the processor load -- sometimes to 100%. That can cause the fan to run loud and continuous for some time.

Third is disk usage. WU can easily force the disk usage to 100% and and keep it pinned there for some time. That's because it writes WU files to the drive, then it turns around and reads them, then it overwrites existing Windows System files. All of that takes a lot of disk usage to complete.

These processes are compounded by Win10 because new Win 10 patches coming out nearly every Tuesday. Since you can't stop Updates like you did with Win7, this means you're going to get updates, regardless of what you do.

To find out what version and build of Win10 your PC is running, do the following:
1) enter "cmd" (without the quotes) into the search area and select the Command Prompt option
2) enter "winver" into the command window (again, without the quotes)
3) The most current Win10 versions as of 3/17/20 are the following:
a) v1803: Bld 17134.1399
b) v1809: Bld 17763.1131
c) v1903: Bld 18632.778
d) v1909: Bld 18363.778.

If yours is older than that, most likely WU is hogging your PC trying to update it.

Some folks have been told that resetting your PC will fix this. but, if you reset your PC, you only make matters WORSE! Why? Because you will reset Win10 back to the original version that came preloaded on the PC and that will restart Windows Update all over again.

To disable WU temporarily, do the following:
1) Enter "services" in the search area (again, without the quotes)
2) When the window opens, scroll down until you see Windows Update
3) If it say Running under status, that indicates that WU is running
4) To change that, double-click on that task, select Stop under the Service status, and then Apply
5) That should stop WU -- and you should see an immediate improvement in performance.

If not, then WU is not the problem.

WU will restart itself automatically later on, so you basically have no choice than to bear with it until it finishes.

[NeonPinkIcon]

In August of last year, I did try again with the laptop.  I had several WIndows updates at that point. I started them and let them go. I left the laptop plugged in and on wifi for almost 48 hours and it never finished doing the updates.  Even today, turning on the laptop, The update was still sitting at the same percentage it was at months ago.  I guess I will try a reset but brand new out of the box from best buy, I have not been able to use this laptop yet and its really irritating!

[WAWood]

@NeonPinkIcon 

Even a "brand new out of the box" PC can still be several months old, having sat in a warehouse for a while, and the OS version can easily be 6 months behind.  

So, even with a new PC, you can get stuck with Windows Updates.

At the Search entry, type winver  to see what version of Win10 you are running now.