processing time between column and table

Try this by selecting cell A1 and and press CTRL + End. It moves to last cell of the table.

Delete all the rows / columns after where your actual data ends. Save the file, close it, and reopen it. 

If this is not working, copy your data to new workbook will help you. 

I have a column with 100,00 records

When you filter and sort, are other columns affected or is your worksheet data only one column wide?

Please post a representative sample of the data in the column.
What kind of filter criteria are you using?
Are you sorting after filtering?
Are the sorting and filtering operations independent of one another?

I have 64bit and 8gb of ram.
The file includes 17,357 records I try to do conditional formatting - checking for duplicates and color coding them red for the client id then I get a spinning wheel .... that keeps going and usually times out.
1. Any ideas on why this is happening
2. How do I stop it from running... I tried escape but still keeps going... do I have to restart my computer? Thanks in advance

Conditional Formatting using formulas is volatile. I suggest that you remove it from your large table, and use a macro that you run periodically to check for duplicates.

Why is conditional formatting so popular? Ease of use? Would you recommend creating tables and using power query? would that help? Also how do I get out of a running query? Escape wont work... Any recommendations aside from shutting down?

Thanks