spinning wait cursor (rainbow wheel) when opening files

My Macbook Air did not like this process at all! Took about 10 reboots, manual and automatic, to get it up and running again - it kept trying but kept going down or back to a page saying that there was a problem. Seems to be working now, but the spinning wheel is still there and each and every new action still takes ages. Typing is often delayed. Think I might have to take it to a specialist.

is anything else sluggish, like booting, or disk utility?

Clear your Caches.

In finder:

Go menu (while holding option) > Library > you should see a caches file, drag it to your trash

Next

Go menu > Computer > Mac HD > Library > You should see another Caches file here, delete all of it's contents but not the folder itself

now empty your trash. You will get some message boxes that may say 'this operation cannot be completed.....just hit continue whenever these pop up

Now boot your computer in safe mode by holding shift when starting it up until you see a progress bar, then release. This will delete some useless internet temporary files.

(just as a disclaimer, these are commen steps and they sound volatile but will not hurt your system and are a great ting to do every couple of months or so) I almost gaurantee you this will speed up your machine

if the problem presists you may want to try a PRAM reset

hold down command + option + P + R when powering on your computer until you hear the startup chime 2 times and then release.

Cheers!