The spinning beach ball - why has my MacBook slowed down SO much?

Question

My MacBook has become terribly slow. I get the spinning beachball almost every time I hit a key now, and I am just about ready to throw everything out the window. Mainly I use my laptop for internet browsing (Safari only), iTunes and iPhoto. I do have third party stuff on my computer such as the software for my Nike Fuelband, and Jawbone Updater for my Jambox. I have Java too, which I probaby don't need. Oh I also have some card games - but those sorts of things I get from the App Store. I don't muck around with settings or anything, because I don't know anything about that! I just USE my laptop. So having said that, I don't know why I would have the spinning beachball as my new sidekick....
I have followed instructions I found on another discussion (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5303293?start=0&tstart=0) to test my MacBook. My results are good news I think: Logging in as a guest account, everything runs like I would hope - iTunes opens up quickly, same with iPhoto, and when I look up sites on Safari they load up quickly. I then started in safe mode, and logged in as myself. Excusing the "stuttering" of the graphics and such, I would say that in safe mode things moved along much more quickly. I got the beachball in safe mode but not every time I tried opening something, and only briefly when it did appear.
My question is, where do I go from here? How do I "clean up" or fix my MacBook so that it runs like it used to? Like I say, I think it must be good news that in those test scenarios my MacBook performs much more like the good old days. Does this suggest that my own account just has crap on it that needs to go? And if so, the big question is, how on earth would I go about identifying the source(s) of the problem and then getting rid of them?
I have searched some on the forums here but I'm at a bit of a loss because I don't really even know what to search for! As I say, I am a complete user only! I do follow instructions pretty well though, so if anyone could point me to the right help page or give me further advice, I would be oh-so-grateful!
cheers,
Lydia

Answer 1

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It changes nothing, and therefore will not, in itself, solve your problem.
Third-party system modifications are a common cause of usability problems. By a “system modification,” I mean software that affects the operation of other software — potentially for the worse. The procedure will help identify which such modifications you've installed, as well as certain other aspects of the configuration that may have a bearing on the problem. Don’t be alarmed by the seeming complexity of these instructions — they’re easy to carry out and won’t change anything on your Mac. 
These steps are to be taken while booted in “normal” mode, not in safe mode, if possible. If you’re now running in safe mode, reboot as usual before continuing. If you can only boot in safe mode, you can still use this procedure, but not all of it will work. Be sure to mention that in your reply, if you haven't already done so. 
Below are instructions to enter UNIX shell commands. The commands are safe and do nothing but produce human-readable text output, but they must be entered exactly as given in order to work. If you have doubts about the safety of the procedure suggested here, search this site for other discussions in which it’s been followed without any report of ill effects. I am not asking you to trust me. If you can't satisfy yourself that these instructions are safe, don't follow them.
The commands will line-wrap or scroll in your browser, but each one is really just a single long line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, and you can then copy it.
Note: If you have more than one user account, Step 2 must be taken as an administrator. Ordinarily that would be the user created automatically when you booted the system for the first time. Step 1 should be taken as the user who has the problem, if different. Most personal Macs have only one user, and in that case this paragraph doesn’t apply.
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways: 
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.) 
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens. 
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid. 
When you launch Terminal, a text window will open with a line already in it, ending either in a dollar sign (“$”) or a percent sign (“%”). If you get the percent sign, enter “sh” and press return. You should then get a new line ending in a dollar sign. 
Step 1 
Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it:
P=/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy; E () { [ "$o" ] && echo $'\n'$1: && echo "$o"; }; F () { o=$($P -c Print "$2" | awk -F'= ' \/$3'/{print $2}'); E "$1"; }; { o=$(kextstat -kl | awk '!/com\.apple/{printf "%s %s\n", $6, $7}'); E "Loaded extrinsic kernel extensions"; o=$(launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.apple|org\.(x|openbsd)|\.[0-9]+$/{print $3}'); E "Loaded extrinsic user agents"; o=$(launchctl getenv DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES); E "Inserted libraries"; o=$(crontab -l); E "User cron tasks"; o=$(cat /e*/lau*); E "Global launchd configuration"; o=$(cat ~/.lau*); E "Per-user launchd configuration"; F "Global login items" /L*/P*/loginwindow.plist Path; F "Per-user login items" L*/P*/com.apple.loginitems.plist Path; F "Safari extensions" L*/Saf*/*/E*.plist Bundle | sed 's/\..*$//;s/-[1-9]$//'; o=$(find ~ $TMPDIR.. \( -flags +sappnd,schg,uappnd,uchg -o ! -user $UID -o ! -perm -600 \) | wc -l); [ "$o" == 0 ] || printf "\nRestricted user files: %s\n" $o; cd; o=$(find -L /S*/L*/E* {,/}L*/{Ad,Compon,Ex,In,Keyb,Mail/Bu,P*P,Qu,Scripti,Servi,Spo}* -type d -name Contents -prune | while read d; do $P -c 'Print :CFBundleIdentifier' "$d/Info.plist" | egrep -qv "^com\.apple\.[^x]|Accusys|ArcMSR|ATTO|HDPro|HighPoint|driver\.stex|hp-fax|JMicron|microsoft\.MDI|print|SoftRAID" && echo ${d%/Contents}; done); E "Extrinsic loadable bundles"; o=$(find /u*/{,*/}lib -type f -exec sh -c 'file -b "$1" | grep -qw shared && ! codesign -v "$1"' {} {} \; -print); E "Unsigned shared libraries"; for d in {,/}L*/{La,Priv,Sta}* L*/Fonts; do o=$(ls -A "$d"); E "$d"; done; } 2> /dev/null | pbcopy; echo $'\nStep 1 done'
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Then click anywhere in the Terminal window and paste (command-V). I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, you may have to press the return key after pasting.
The command may take up to a few minutes to run, depending on how many files you have and the speed of the computer. Wait for the line "Step 1 done" to appear below what you entered. The output of the command will be automatically copied to the Clipboard. If the command produced no output, the Clipboard will be empty. Paste into a reply to this message. No typing is involved in this step.
Step 2 
Remember that you must be logged in as an administrator for this step. Do as in Step 1 with this line:
E () { [ "$o" ] && echo $'\n'$1: && echo "$o"; }; { o=$(sudo launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.(apple|openssh|vix\.cron)|org\.(amav|apac|cups|isc|ntp|postf|x)/{print $3}'); E "Loaded extrinsic daemons"; o=$(sudo defaults read com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook); E "Login hook"; o=$(sudo crontab -l); E "Root cron tasks"; o=$(syslog -k Sender kernel -k Message CReq 'GPU |hfs: Ru|I/O e|find tok|n Cause: -|NVDA\(|pagin|timed? ?o' | tail | awk '/:/{$4=""; print}'); E "Log check"; } 2> /dev/null | pbcopy; echo $'\nStep 2 done'
This time you'll be prompted for your login password, which you do have to type. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. Type it carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. Heed that warning, but don't post it. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
You can then quit Terminal.
To prevent confusion, I'll repeat: When you type your password in the Terminal window, you won't see what you're typing.
Note: If you don’t have a login password, set one before taking Step 2. If that’s not possible, skip the step.
Important: If any personal information, such as your name or email address, appears in the output of these commands, anonymize it before posting. Usually that won't be necessary.
Remember, Steps 1 and 2 are all copy-and-paste — no typing is involved, apart from your password. Also remember to post the output.