iMac running slow, unable to determine why

Hi all,

Fairly standard thread about my computer slowing down. Key facts:

1. The iMac in question is a work computer, with employer garbage software on it
2. It's been slow since I got it, although it is getting a little worse
3. It's been very lightly used (because it's slow, I use my personal laptop whenever possible)

The specific problem: I have frequent but irregular delays/freezes/beachballing with:

• Opening apps
• Opening pages within apps
• running processes within apps (e.g., spell-check can take 4-5 sentences before it finally activates and changes a word)
• Loading web pages
• Logging in

Etc. I know the computer's four years old now, but (a) it's seen very light use, since I mostly use my laptop, and (b) it's been slow in this way since I got it.

The Etrecheck report is pasted below. Thanks so much for your help!

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EtreCheck version: 3.4.6 (460)

Report generated 2017-11-13 12:42:14

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 6:40

Performance: Below Average

Click the [Lookup] links for more information from Apple Support Communities.

Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.

Click the [Remove/Report] links to remove adware or update the whitelist of legitimate software.

Problem: Computer is too slow

Hardware Information: ⓘ

iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013)

[Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty & Service]

iMac - model: iMac14,3

1 2,9 GHz Intel Core i5 (i5-4570S) CPU: 4-core

8 GB RAM Upgradeable - [Instructions]

BANK 0/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

Handoff/Airdrop2: supported

Wireless:
en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

iCloud Quota: 3.91 GB available

Video Information: ⓘ

NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M - VRAM: 1024 MB

iMac 1920 x 1080

Disk Information: ⓘ

APPLE HDD HTS541010A9E662 disk0: (1 TB) (Rotational)

[Show SMART report]

EFI (disk0s1 - MS-DOS FAT32) <not mounted>
[EFI]: 210 MB

Macintosh HD (disk0s2 - Journaled HFS+) /
[Startup]: 999.21 GB (928.26 GB free)

Recovery HD (disk0s3 - Journaled HFS+) <not mounted>
[Recovery]: 650 MB

USB Information: ⓘ

USB30Bus

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

SteelSeries Rival Gaming Mouse

Thunderbolt Information: ⓘ

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

System Software: ⓘ

macOS Sierra
10.12.6 (16G29) - Time since boot: about one hour

Gatekeeper: ⓘ

Mac App Store and identified developers

Possible adware: ⓘ

Unknown file: /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.github.outset.login-privileged.plist

/usr/local/outset/outset --login-privileged

One possible adware file found. [Remove/Report]

Kernel Extensions: ⓘ

/Library/Extensions

[loaded] com.sophos.driver.devctrl (9.6.52 - SDK 10.6) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.sophos.kext.oas (9.6.53 - SDK 10.11) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.sophos.kext.sfm (9.6.54 - SDK 10.11) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.sophos.nke.swi (9.6.52 - SDK 10.11) [Lookup]

System Launch Agents: ⓘ

[not loaded] 6 Apple tasks

[loaded] 171 Apple tasks

[running] 108 Apple tasks

System Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[not loaded] 41 Apple tasks

[loaded] 170 Apple tasks

[running] 107 Apple tasks

Launch Agents: ⓘ

[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2015-04-09) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.adobe.AdobeCreativeCloud.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2015-04-14) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.citrix.AuthManager_Mac.plist (? 1ce99fae d15fecd0 - installed 2015-04-14) [Lookup]

[running] com.citrix.ReceiverHelper.plist (? 75b63b97 2af1b2e9 - installed 2015-04-14) [Lookup]

[running] com.citrix.ServiceRecords.plist (? 8e6543d 46427e19 - installed 2015-04-14) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.github.outset.login.plist (Shell Script 468e16f6 - installed 2017-07-04) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.github.outset.on-demand.plist (? 30d0d9cd cbf08ada - installed 2017-07-04) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.googlecode.munki.ManagedSoftwareCenter.plist (Shell Script f8bfedaa - installed 2017-09-27) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.googlecode.munki.MunkiStatus.plist (? b698141 8a5a6777 - installed 2017-10-14) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.googlecode.munki.managedsoftwareupdate-loginwindow.plist (Shell Script a546384a - installed 2017-09-27) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.googlecode.munki.munki-notifier.plist (? 3604ea2e 870d6555 - installed 2017-09-27) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist (? 3a307776 72ac4dde - installed 2017-11-13) [Lookup]

[running] com.sophos.agent.plist (Sophos - installed 2017-09-12) [Lookup]

[running] com.sophos.uiserver.plist (Sophos - installed 2017-09-12) [Lookup]

[loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.startx.plist (Apple Inc. - XQuartz - installed 2014-08-12) [Lookup]

Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (? 2afb3af7 564efddb - installed 2017-10-20) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.apple.installer.cleanupinstaller.plist (? ? ? - installed 2017-07-19)

[loaded] com.github.outset.boot.plist (? a6c65d2c cbf08ada - installed 2017-07-04) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.github.outset.cleanup.plist (? cb11ef70 cbf08ada - installed 2017-07-04) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.github.outset.login-privileged.plist (? 93fdbc09 cbf08ada - installed 2017-07-04) [Lookup]

[running] com.googlecode.munki.app_usage_monitor.plist (Shell Script 9be37c7c - installed 2017-09-27) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.googlecode.munki.authrestartd.plist (Shell Script b0ba4b4e - installed 2017-09-27) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.googlecode.munki.logouthelper.plist (Shell Script ae2422b2 - installed 2017-09-27) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.googlecode.munki.managedsoftwareupdate-check.plist (? a3bf0d09 b5cea94e - installed 2017-09-27) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.googlecode.munki.managedsoftwareupdate-install.plist (? 70e0ffde b5cea94e - installed 2017-09-27) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.googlecode.munki.managedsoftwareupdate-manualcheck.plist (? 5e2eee61 b5cea94e - installed 2017-09-27) [Lookup]

[running] com.googlecode.pymacadmin.crankd.plist (Shell Script ba4fe2ff - installed 2017-09-11) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist (? 6d8cb30e a77a86d3 - installed 2012-11-05) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist (Shell Script e3fefdd2 - installed 2017-09-06) [Lookup]

[running] com.sophos.common.servicemanager.plist (Sophos - installed 2017-09-14) [Lookup]

[not loaded] org.eyebeam.SelfControl.plist (Charlie Stigler - installed 2016-03-21) [Lookup]

[loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx.plist (Apple Inc. - XQuartz - installed 2014-08-12) [Lookup]

User Launch Agents: ⓘ

[loaded] com.dropbox.DropboxMacUpdate.agent.plist (Dropbox, Inc. - installed 2017-08-30) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2017-09-28) [Lookup]

User Login Items: ⓘ

Dropbox Application

(/Applications/Dropbox.app)

Backup and Sync from Google Application

(/Applications/Backup and Sync.app)

goproapp.devicedetection SMLoginItem - Hidden (Woodman Labs, Inc. - installed 2016-11-25)

(/Applications/Quik.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/goproapp.devicedetection.app )

Internet Plug-ins: ⓘ

AdobeAAMDetect: AdobeAAMDetect 2.0.0.0 (installed 2015-04-09) [Lookup]

FlashPlayer-10.6: 27.0.0.183 (installed 2017-11-13) [Lookup]

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (installed 2017-10-14)

AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: 11.0.10 (installed 2015-01-12) [Lookup]

AdobePDFViewer: 11.0.10 (installed 2015-01-12) [Lookup]

Flash Player: 27.0.0.183 (installed 2017-11-13) [Lookup]

CitrixICAClientPlugIn: 11.9.0 (installed 2014-11-18) [Lookup]

SharePointBrowserPlugin: 14.4.9 (installed 2015-04-20) [Lookup]

MeetingJoinPlugin: Unknown (installed 2015-04-14) [Lookup]

JavaAppletPlugin: Java 8 Update 151 build 12 (installed 2017-11-13) Check version

3rd Party Preference Panes: ⓘ

Flash Player (installed 2017-10-20) [Lookup]

Java (installed 2017-11-13) [Lookup]

Time Machine: ⓘ

Time Machine not configured!

Top Processes by CPU: ⓘ

10%
Finder

10%
WindowServer

8%
Activity Monitor

8%
SophosScanD

6%
hidd

Top Processes by Memory: ⓘ

1.06 GB
softwareupdated

806 MB kernel_task

455 MB Finder

295 MB Google Chrome

277 MB SophosScanD

Top Processes by Network Use: ⓘ

Input Output Process name

206 MB 804 KB Dropbox

293 KB 351 KB SophosWebIntelligence

50 KB 151 KB SophosSXLD

107 KB 26 KB Simplenote

44 KB 39 KB mDNSResponder

Top Processes by Energy Use: ⓘ

15.94 Google Chrome

12.66 Finder

9.16 Google Chrome Helper

8.38 WindowServer

3.88 hidd

Virtual Memory Information: ⓘ

1.38 GB
Available RAM

47 MB Free RAM

6.62 GB
Used RAM

1.34 GB
Cached files

0 B Swap Used

Software installs (last 30 days): ⓘ

Java 8 Update 144:
(installed 2017-10-17)

MacSDU Sophos Finalize v1.0:
(installed 2017-11-13)

Adobe Flash Player:
(installed 2017-11-13)

Java 8 Update 151:
(installed 2017-11-13)

Install information may not be complete.

Diagnostics Events (last 3 days for minor events): ⓘ

2017-11-13 11:24:57 Backup and Sync.app Crash [Open]

Cause: objc[635]: Invalid or prematurely-freed autorelease pool 0x1010c6938. Set a breakpoint on objc_autoreleasePoolInvalid to debug. Proceeding anyway because the app is old (SDK version 10.9.0). Memory errors are likely.

Files deleted by EtreCheck: ⓘ

2017-11-13 12:28:44 - ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.valvesoftware.steamclean.plist - Unknown

2017-11-13 12:28:44 - ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.wondershare.TunesGoHelper.plist - Unknown