Charlie Hoffpauir wrote:
On Sun, 02 Sep 2018 13:07:22 -0500, Charlie Hoffpauir
wrote:

On Mon, 3 Sep 2018 01:06:44 +0800, "Mr. Man-wai Chang"
wrote:

The slow-down is most likely a software issue.

Pardon me to jump to conclusion:

Get/Buy a cheap spare hard disk and clean-install Win 10. See if
everything runs smoothly then. If it really does, you should consider a
full backup of everything and do a clean install with the original hard
disk.
Thanks for the suggestion..... but I have a problem. I have a Win 10
ISO disk, downloaded and saved some time ago, but my Win 10 was an
upgrade from Win 7, and don't have access to my Win 7 product key.
That is, I have it, but it's boxed away in one of dozens of boxes
packed away a year ago after storing everything that wasn't damaged in
the flood of Harvey. Is there some way to read the installed key from
my current installation so I can activate the "new" installation?

I googled basically this question, and found that what I should be
asking for is a digital licensa, since I upgraded from Win 7. I don't
recall ever "seeing" the license....

If your hardware was the same as it was when the Win10 upgrade
was installed, the "digital license" stored on the Microsoft
server is still valid.

If you clean install Windows 10 (on exactly the same hardware
config as before), the OS computes a "hash" that includes
the NIC MAC address, and forwards that to Microsoft. The
Microsoft server looks up that hash value and can see your
digital license. And it returns some sort of token to the
machine, completing activation.

With Windows 10, you have nothing to worry about.

*******

If you use an MSA (Microsoft Account) as well, then
the MSA is recorded against the hardware hash. If
you move the OS to a new machine later, the MSA
provides proof you had some sort of license
previously. And this may allow a new machine to
be commissioned, using the old installation
digital license.

You can use slmgr /dlv to dump some info about
the install. Although I don't think there is
anything of real value there.

If you use MagicJellyBean to dump the key, you
will see "3V66T" or similar ending. These are
"fake" keys, all the same, used if everyone
has Pro say. Reusing that key should do you
no good whatsoever. It's not valid for
reactivation, and you'd be wasting your time
to attack the problem that way.

The information is all stored on the Microsoft end.

If you change out the motherboard, that screws up
the hash, and chances are, you'll need to phone
the number presented on your computer screen if that
happens.

Paul