slow Dell laptop, CCleaner or Clean Master?

4 month old Dell laptop is slowing down.
Do these cleaning apps work, to get rid of junk etc?
Any suggestions appreciated

Laptop is also tough to even open sometimes???

Thanks

We were even totally unable to open until I searched and did a hard reboot....
take out battery and then hold down power button, that got us back in.

Microsoft just put out a couple of patches this morning to fix a zero day vulnerability, it could be that those patches are loading in the background, causing your computer processes to slow down.

Slow is a relative term, could you tell us how long it takes your machine to get to the Dell splash screen and then to the Windows login?

Are you getting an error message when you open launch Windows?

Since you mention a four month old Dell computer, I'm guessing you are running Windows 10.
Before getting into using CCleaner or Cleanmaster, I would start with Dell's utilities to see if you are running the latest bios and drivers; https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/products?app=drivers

Then I would follow the suggestions from the following MS article; https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4002019/windows-10-improve-pc-performance.

Malwarebytes is quite good

I use to use ccleaner all the time.

Malwarebytes is good.

CCleaner is borderline malicious. I wouldn't go anywhere near it, nor the other one the OP mentioned either.

It's malware, or at least usually bundled with malware.

What OS are you running?

What I usually do is reach in there and grab the Microsoft parasite by the throat and drag it out, then load Linux (still prefer 16.04 to 18.04 or Mint). I like it for the speed, absence of viruses, and $0 price tag.

Buzzbomb is correct you can't beat the "speed, absence of viruses, and $0 price tag" of Linux but switching to Linux comes with its own hurtels. I bailed on Microsoft after XP cycled out and have been very happy. However I needed to adapt to alternative applications and live without some Window specific ones, mostly games. So unleash your inner nerd and consider the Linux side.

[QUOTE="howie105, post: 1444615, member: 22325" switching to Linux comes with its own hurtels. However I needed to adapt to alternative applications and live without some Window specific ones, mostly games.[/QUOTE]
I'm not a gamer or nerd so don't know much about it, but apparently what Linux runs games off of is something called Steam, so whatever that supports I guess. A friend said there was a Microsoft music program he needs and the Linux equivalent wouldn't do the same thing, but I suspect one benefit of open source stuff is that it's being constantly monitored and upgraded by a lot of people, so there's no reason for it not to improve rapidly. It's getting bigger very quickly.

I'm not sure Linux is inherently more secure as much as that there are less people banging on the doors to get in. If it ever gets real bigger, that could change.

I write only to mention one reason why such questions as @MinnBobber are hard to answer, even approved programs have other issues. Many use AVAST as their free anti-virus. It logs in and sends to it's master every click on every link you make.

Remember, if you're not paying for it, you're not the customer, you're the product.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qjdkq7/avast-antivirus-sells-user-browsing-data-investigation

OldNewbie said:

I'm not sure Linux is inherently more secure as much as that there are less people banging on the doors to get in. If it ever gets real bigger, that could change.

Click to expand...

Oh, I think it's getting real bigger.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_adopters

Buzzbomb Almighty said:

Oh, I think it's getting real bigger.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_adopters

Click to expand...

https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide/