I have been getting a pop up from AVG to tell me ‘things’ are slowing down my laptop, to clear said ‘things’ I would need to upgrade from free cover.
I had a look and the biggest drain seemed to come from this…ELAN PS/2 Port Input Device… so I uninstalled it 
which did help.
I have just had a pop up to restart the laptop to update …ELAN PS/2 Port Input Device.
Can somebody please tell me what this is and do I need it?
If I need to start paying for anti-virus I would like to consider other options first @graham
another option… ditch windoze and move to Linux 
Personally, I’d recommend ubuntu desktop version - the current LTS (Long Term Support) version 20.04.3 which you can download from here and create a bootable DVD from which you can try the OS before committing. Be sure to make a backup of any important stuff first.
You can run windoze and ubuntu side by side in a dual boot system but I prefer to commit to one OS rather than test the machine to cope with both.
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It’s the old style keyboard/mouse port - I can’t see it would slow down things much.
Sometimes these devices just exist because the electronics supports them even though they are not connected - I’d only expect a PS/2 port on a fairly old laptop.
I used to run, even recommend, AVG free but these days you’d probably speed up your machine more by ditching it. Make sure you replace it with Windows Defender though (assuming you have Windows 10).
Firefox and an ad blocker is a decent combination for avoiding most Internet trouble.
What laptop and operating system is it BTW?
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I second that, we (I say that meaning the man shape) has saved many peoples older laptops that had ground to a halt in Windows. Installing Linux makes them work like snappy young things. Also you don’t need virus protection with Linux.
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Reading up on this port, it is also used for the touchpad mouse control, so it might be a good idea to keep it up-to-date.
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I never particularly thought about that as a possibility.
Should be obvious if the trackpad stops working though.
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I used to use AVG free but found it did sometimes seem to cause issue - I swapped to Sophos (also free) and have to say I think it causes less issue and seems better. Just a thought - Assuming you don’t go big bang and reinstall a different operating system 
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I stopped using AVG years ago, and would advise anyone to ditch it asap.
This is one of the reasons why:
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I used AVG free edition for many years. It used to be very good, but over the years it slowed down things more and more and so I swapped to Bitdefender about 5 years ago. I pay for Bitdefender, but have never payed more than 50% of the price on the website … there is a secret to doing this, which so far has always worked. Bitdefender is hugely superior to AVG in my book, and I don’t mind paying for a good product, especially half price 
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May I ask what benefit you get from Bitdefender? I use Malwarebytes (free) and so far have never had a problem, but I’m always interested in others’ experiences.
Thank you all for your suggestions 
Thanks for the link Graham I am downloading Ubuntu at the moment, it’s slow, is that normal 
maybe I should have uninstalled AVG first? 
To be continued…
Same here.
I also use McAfee, although I may ditch this soon.
Your ISP may limit the rate at which you are allowed to download ISO files from Linux distribution servers, in addition to any of Ubuntu’s own mirror network slowness.
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Download complete.
Uninstalled AVG.
Do I need to install Linux?
Please know a technical numpty here, the questions are only easy if one knows the answers 
Linux is an operating system, like Windows and the Mac OS. If you really are a tech numpty, then I really wouldn’t do it (I suspect you couldn’t do it accidentally, since it required – last time I did it – a fair effort: you certainly can’t do it accidentally!).
What’s the name of the file, including the file extension (three letters after the full stop in the file name) that you downloaded?
File extensions on Windows are generally hidden from users, there is an option to display them in the file manager’s settings.
Usually, you will have to create a bootable medium (eg. DVD, USB key) onto which the ISO file gets written using a special program.
Unetbootin is one such program for writing the ISO to a USB key or SD card. Otherwise, if you are creating a bootable DVD, any DDD writing software, such as Nero.
An example here:
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In my experience, it is very light on resources. When I swapped from AVG, the difference in performance on my machine was very noticeable. It also has a very nice feature that warns you of windows settings that can create vulnerabilities. When windows updates, it has a nasty habit of changing certain settings (like autorun) without warning. Bitdefender captures these changes and warns you.
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I just clicked on Grahams link 
Do nothing, these are sales notification. Remember that just using your laptop slows some things down so don’t worry or panic. I agree with Graham that moving to Linux is an excellent future.
Hi Fran,
Why not try cleaning your laptop of any rubbish that has collected on it over time first as this can slow down your machine, CCleaner is a good tool that I use to do this and the basic version is free to download and is easy to install and use.
The link to get it is here if you want to try it.
Regarding anti-virus software, many are saying that for most people surfing the internet on Windows it is not necessary as the built in Windows Defender software does a perfectly good job.
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