Sluggish Performance/Memory Usage

[AlwaysNTroule]

High Memory Usage When Idle & Sluggish Performance

My computer has been running very sluggishly lately. It seems that becomes bogged down even when I leave it alone and it's idle. I have a pretty decent amount of RAM (12gb) and it doesn't run any smoother when I close programs.
I've attached some screenshots from Task Manager.
I've cleared almost 50gb from my hard drive and increased my page file to the recommended size.

 

[andrew129260]

First try this:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ation-conflicts-performing-clean-startup.html

Does safe mode have the issue?

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/69585-safe-mode.html

 

[AlwaysNTroule]

Thanks! I'll try the clean startup in the morning and let you know the result.

 

[AlwaysNTroule]

After the clean startup it's idling at 1.6GB of memory.
I also installed the latest Windows updates and it idled in safe mode at approx. 800mb of memory.
I'll keep an eye on it throughout the day and see if it spikes like it's done in the past.