why is my imac running so slow?

if I had to guess, your Mac is HDD based.

but rather than playing a guessing game, i'm thinking you should download and run the free version of EtreCheck so we can see if you have some software installed that is causing your issue. make sure you give "full disk access" to etrecheck. Learn how to use it by reading Using EtreCheck. if you need help interpreting the report, you can see how to post the report here by reading How to use the Add Text Feature When Posting Large Amounts of Text, i.e. an Etrecheck Report. and it automatically obscures sensitive things (like serial numbers) so you don't have to worry about sharing the report here.

pharmonic wrote:

I read in a couple of places that it’s malware

know anything about that?

that is the main reason I asked if you would provide an etrecheck report for us to look at.

pharmonic wrote:

No I meant that I heard etrecheck was maleware

That hear say' comes from unscrupulous cleaning and antivirus software makers, that want you to pay for and use their junk-ware on your Mac.

The free version of EtreCheckPro is safe to use on your Mac.

if etrecheck was malware, do you really think apple and the moderators here would allow us to recommend it countless times every day?

There's also a level 6 helper that has an agenda of bad mouthing etrecheck.