Windows 10 interface, taskbar and built-in applications seem to lag or stop working.
Windows 10 interface, taskbar and built-in applications seem to lag or stop working.
Hello everyone, I'm trying to figure out what's going on. Lately, my system feels really slow when using the Taskbar, Start menu, and native apps on the desktop with Windows 10. Sometimes I can't even interact with things like a calculator—clicking the X button ten times before closing it is frustrating. I have a well-built PC with an NVMe SSD, so it's not something obvious. I thought maybe switching my power plan from Ryzen Optimized to Balanced might be the issue, but this happened only a few days ago and I started noticing the slowdown recently. I've searched online but haven't found much help.
It might indicate a storage issue or a temporary error. If it occurs often, you should look into the root cause. It’s also wise to avoid using sleep mode or hibernation; turning them off may resolve the problem.
I don't rely on sleep or hibernation settings. It doesn't seem to be related to storage; there are no signs of problems like slow loading. Currently, only the task bar and basic apps such as calculator and photos work normally. A recent issue was opening a photo that remained blank until I ended it in Task Manager and restarted Microsoft Explorer, which resolved everything. Until then, other programs and games are functioning perfectly.
In reality, I’m unsure what’s going on. My observations suggest a GPU driver problem, since everything you mentioned involves GPU rendering—though that seems fine in games. Or perhaps a missing or faulty chipset driver. That’s all I can say. Make sure your system isn’t overclocked and that your RAM is set to the XMP profile for Profile 1 in UEFI. CSM mode should be off, which is the default. These are the thoughts that come to mind. While I don’t like this fix, you could reinstall the OS to resolve driver issues. If you have a spare drive, consider swapping it in and performing a clean install of Windows to test if the problem persists. The goal is to determine whether the issue lies with hardware or software. Also, restarts of explorer.exe seem to help, indicating a software-related cause.
The problem appears to have resolved itself without any intervention. It wasn’t apparent during the weekend since applications froze only briefly, even for a weather app. Today I added the Windows preview and updated the NVidia driver, which should prevent it from returning.