To those that are curious, no, I have not found a solution to the issue other than to buy a Mac. HEre in a few weeks I will do just that. 

That's a bit drastic, buying a Mac when your problem is most likely a Windows Update issue.  Find the offending update and remove it and you'll get back your faster start up times, etc.  That's all I did.... a system restore to before that series of updates, and viola.  I then hid those updates so they won't bother me again.  I now have cold start times of between 30 to 40 seconds.

Fair enough, if that's what you want to do, rather than it being a reaction to the update slowing boots, etc.  Thing is, you could have the best of both worlds if you just did a system restore to before the issue, rather than a full reset.  It would be less time consuming and you'd likely keep all your programs.

Anyway, it's totally up to you.  

Never mind

"Got me a HP laptop. I bought it early last year. It's been a great little computer. Nice and fast. Until about a week ago when we finally got internet back in the house. It used to wake from sleep and be ready for the password to get to the desktop in less then a second after I moved the mouse to wake it. It now takes up to two minutes."

Based on your post, it would appear that was not the way it was out of the box. Clearly something has slowed it down which was probably an update which has already been mentioned. It is an easy fix. 

If you are willing to buy a new computer, and don't have time to fix it why don't you take it to someone who does then.

That's why my almost four year old laptop is still running pretty damn good despite all the buggy updates.

Computers; even, the apple requires maintenence after awhile that takes time. It sounds like your saying I don't have time to have a computer.

That's the best way to get your copy of Windows, through MS itself.  That's what I did with my HP 2-in-1 after I had Win 10 installed during Scheduled Maintenance in the middle of the night without my knowledge or consent.  It was just an update over Win 8.1, and I wanted a clean install without whatever sins had occurred in Win 8.1. 

The other thing MS did during the Win 10 installation was wipe my recovery partition, so I couldn't roll back to Win 8.1.  However, I ended up not caring about that.  As you said, Kona, HP installations are full of bloatware, and I never used any of it anyway.

As for Linux, I found the easiest distro to use for drivers and working straight out of the box is Ubuntu.  Mint is pretty good as well.  However, as much as I like those distros, they are not quite mainstream OSes as yet, which I why I still use Windows as my default OS.  I have a Mac Mini with OS-X Yosemite on it, but I haven't used that in a while and won't likely set it up again until we have moved back to Tasmania in a couple of months time.

The extra 4GB of RAM will help your system as well.  However, performing regular maintenance will be a must if you want to keep that machine running well.  IOBit's Advanced System Care is helpful in that aim  There is a free version which performs well, and a Pro version with a few more options and tools, but there are some free stand alone tools that you can downdload via ASC which will also help keep your machine clean, safe and working well... a defragger; a malware fighter; a driver updater and uninstaller.  And of course you already know about Ccleaner.

Anyhow, all the best with it.  

Something to take from this is that learning a new operating system is never easy. I recommend system mechanic. Bit defender for viruses with Ccleaner for cleaning. If you are not using Bitdefender then you should probably buy something for ransomeware. 

Glad you got it working properly.

I can't help but notice something odd about this thread though...

?????

You don't need fancy looking ASC. Glary Utilities does the same, and is compatible with MB. MB > ASC; if MB deletes ASC, then it has a valid reason for it.
But failure is sadly hard coded into Microsoft Windows. There is no all-in-one application to root failure out of Microsoft Windows. You could simply settle with using CCleaner once a month.

For stability, do not use unstable, untested, rushed OS releases. Get a stable OS ISO which includes all latest updates. And nuke your hard drive and reinstall OS after every 5 months. You also need to learn to configure your firewall properly: block everything you do not need and everything you do not use. You don't even need to have annoying Windows Update service running: hackers will always find a way in if you are such a prized target.
Once you obtain common sense, you will rarely need your anti-virus.

The custom disk images made by factories are horrid trash: throw them away immediately: they are bloated with trash, and have horrible configuration. I once had Fujjiuju laptop which factory disk split physical hard drive into 2 partitions which caused severe system slow down. Also one big name is known for intentionally including spyware in its disk images, to ofc sell collected user data to third parties.

But ofc, if people would be required to pass an exam before allowed behind a computer, then exploiters, parasites, criminals could never earn billions. Your depression makes them happy; handful earning billions > billions of wise.

I've had probably a dozen laptops go through my hands...either mine...or others' to fix.... and every single one of them has been HD-wiped and reformatted so as to avoid the absurd bloat of junk-ware that companies insist on including.

All then run as well as their specs will allow.  Some actually needed the process thanks to fucked-up Win 10 'upgrades'...