I have been using Kaspersky Security Cloud Free for some time on my Windows 10 Pro laptop (Dell XPS 15) with no problems. I recently purchased a Sandisk Extreme 1TB external SSD. Read/write speeds were so slow it was unusable. Exchanged the SSD for a new one and had the same issue. Even tried a Crucial 1TB external SSD and had the same problem. To make a long story short after days of trying to resolve the issue I finally uninstalled Kaspersky Security Cloud Free and the SSDs worked perfectly with read/write speeds as expected. Reinstalled Kaspersky Security Cloud Free and the read/write speeds returned to basically unusable. Uninstalled Kaspersky Security Cloud Free and the SSDs returned to working perfectly with read/write speeds as expected. Both SSDs I tried (the Sandisk and the Crucial) are able to connect to either USB or Thunderbolt and the problem existed no matter the connection method.

Is their a setting somewhere that I am missing or is this some sort of bug with Kaspersky Security Cloud Free?

@wags1 Welcome.

Please see How to speed up your laptop or PC

That answer has nothing to do with my problem at all.

@wags1 These are only some general tips, for privacy reasons we don’t request system logs which could provide more details to help you. 
Kaspersky Tech Support (only for paid versions) for this issue should be your best option.

Also, Kaspersky collaborators who are watching this Forum may eventually  provide  assistance for your problem.

@Berny Appreciate your willingness to try to help but again, those “general tips” don’t have anything to do with the problem I described. At this point I have uninstalled Kaspersky Security Cloud Free and for now it will stay uninstalled. It’s either a setting that needs to be tweaked or a bug in the program. Thanks.

@wags1 You are welcome, please wait for other suggestions.