I don't know where else to post this:

Recently, CS4 Photoshop started to freeze up when I do anything - cropping, selecting, fonts, etc. I don't have a lot of anything installed, I reinstalled it, restarted my laptop, restarted CS4, so on and so forth. I've checked drivers, I've disabled and reenabled things, nothing's working. The program, when I try to do anything, freezes between 8-10 seconds or longer depending.

I know there's like... one thread that describes this perfectly and it's solved nothing. Help?

IT student here going into Computer Information Systems, and it couldn't hurt to reinstall the application, then make sure you've defragmented the system so that the files that make up Photoshop aren't scrambled around on your hard drive in littler pieces. Then, finally, if that doesn't work, uninstall again, and manually go into the folders where Photoshop lives (usually in Program Files or Program Files (x86)), and delete the folders pertaining to the application. I use Creative Cloud, so my experience is different here. It might also be wise to check to see if it has updated recently, and a reinstall from scratch could fix that, as updates can and do break things.

Done and done, neither helped. Next step is restoring laptop.

Hi I had read somewere that some Photoshops require the older versions of Java in order to work, both on Windows and Mac (which I quite found odd because my CS6 doesn't need Java as long I keep my Mac on Malverics and lower. So why does it need Java?)

Perhaps you could try that? Only make sure you have a good virus scanner because your system will become more weaker against some viruses.

... I hadn't even thought of that. My Java has been giving me grief lately so I wonder if that's it... I'll get back to you.

[edit] I COULD KISS YOU. THAT SEEMS TO HAVE FIXED IT. HOLY CRAP. THANK YOU. It's still lagging a smidge but it's gone from 3 solid minutes of "NOPE" to a few seconds.

I hope it will fix the problem for you (:

You might have to try it different kinds of older version of Java because I'm not sure which one you need. If that doesn't work you can also try older versions of Flash player which might can fix it as well. [edit] Yay! I'm glad the trick worked! And you're welcome, I'm glad that I could help you out (:

It's still lagging a teeny bit but compared to what I had been contending with, it's fixed, lmao. I didn't even think to look at either java or flash.

I didn't do either when I had the same problem with the new OS and my CS6 kept giving errors about java so I looked up, read a whole bunch of text and tried a couple of times of old ones which eventually worked (:

I didn't think about Java and Flash. Those are some antiquated APIs! Anyways, you could also try running the application in Compatibility Mode. Try doing so in either Windows 7 or Windows XP mode on the Compatibility tab of the application's properties!