For the CPU and RAM you have, it should be decent enough for multi-talking, basic web browsing, and the such, try this list of things:

1) Uninstall unimportant software, such at the crap that's installed along side some programs as like an advertisement that's sometimes easy to miss the check box for, such as wanting to install rainmeter and it trying to trick you into getting some other stuff along side it that serves no purpose to you. Unknown software you can research, don't just uninstall something because it doesn't look familiar. Game software such as BigFishGames if that's still a thing is a common one, or was back in the day, but just clean the junk out of it.

2) Install CCleaner, and look for the startup programs tab, and turn off unimportant stuff, like you don't really need 10 or 15 individual programs that you probably wont even use during that session to start up with your system every single time, the only thing I have set to start with my system is MalwareBytes, my trackpad driver, and CCleaner, that is it. After turning off useless startup programs, run the regular cleaner, multiple times until you get completely clean scans from everywhere it checks, then do the same for the registry, while making sure to back it up as you go which is an automatic process, it gives you the option in a small box that pops up in the software if you don't know from not having used it before or something.

3) MalwareBytes, free and easy malware detection and removal software, and while you're at it, grab the root-kit scanner as well, it wouldn't hurt. Run those and handle flagged files as you deem appropriate, if any should appear.

To recap the first one, if something is unfamiliar to you, research it first, it might me important like for your wireless driver or something (I made that mistake before, don't uninstall anything that's unfamiliar without first looking up exactly what it is, and what it does.) For the record, Windows 10 isn't a complete OS yet, there's still work being done, some of which is kinda crappy but still, so some errors may happen, that's why I reverted back to 7, I was tired of the "Oh, we've run into an error, let's restart your PC while you're probably busy doing something, because we really don't care" crap.

After you mess around with software such as CCleaner and similar optimization tools, you start to see in your mind other things you can do, it's weird to explain, your RAM is good, I ran 4GB about a month ago, until I needed more for my multi-tasking, and your CPU is okay, don't really need a multi-hundred-dollar processor if you aren't trying to get into gaming or anything strenuous like that, only reason mine is expensive is for rendering within a good time-frame for my job lol, so yea you should be fine for the stuff I said earlier like browsing and some multi-tasking. Just clean it up a bit and you should see a good difference friend.

1) You would never get a "decent laptop" for <300usd. Just would not happen to be of a good spec.
2) What do you actually need to do with it?
3) An SSD would give you the best for money upgrade and even with a low power CPU you would notice an increase.

Kyle93 wrote 1) You would never get a "decent laptop" for <300usd. Just would not happen to be of a good spec.
2) What do you actually need to do with it?
3) An SSD would give you the best for money upgrade and even with a low power CPU you would notice an increase.

I have a separate gaming pc so im not trying to play games or anything, its just so sluggish doing simple things and im just hesitant to buy an ssd for it because i wasnt sure that it was my hdd that was the problem. Even during web browsing the laptop just feels laggy i dont really know how else to describe it.

SSD will help just remember that it's not a magical fairy, it's not going to fix dat Celeron.

The reason why an SSD will help is it is faster than a HDD. If you stick your operating system on an SSD, you will notice it is a lot faster.

My dad has an i5-6500 in his PC, I have an AMD FX-8320. Mine is over twice as fast in general computer use because of the SSD.

I got a 480gb SSD to replace my HDD, my question is, should i do a fresh install of windows 7 or 10? I would like to do 10 just to stay up to date but if i will notice a difference on 7 i will do that. Thanks again everyone.

People who's hardware originally came with 10, should stick with 10, but people's who's hardware came with 7, should stick with 7 or suffer from all the bugs that come with 10.

That's why I didn't update because 10 already broke my Asus t100ta tablet, no issues until I upgraded, then it got to the point where I couldn't even install 8.1 back on it. I'm not touching 10 unless I get a laptop that comes with it, and it's smart that you do the same.