Why does any windows get slow over time?

[aheyn]

Hey all,

I'm actually running Windows 7 RC, but have found it to be the case with this also.

Always after a few weeks/months, Windows slows down considerably from when you first installed it. This is despite my having auto defrag on every week, cleaning up temp files etc.

I know more services might be installed with programs, but other than this what do people think is the reason for this 'bit rot' of sorts?

When I was testing out drivers I installed Win7RC on another partition of a different hard drive, and that was super fact and responsive as this was when first installed. Obviously the slow down isn't huge, but it is definitely noticeable.

 

[Dark Nova Gamer]

Hey all,

I'm actually running Windows 7 RC, but have found it to be the case with this also.

Always after a few weeks/months, Windows slows down considerably from when you first installed it. This is despite my having auto defrag on every week, cleaning up temp files etc.

I know more services might be installed with programs, but other than this what do people think is the reason for this 'bit rot' of sorts?

When I was testing out drivers I installed Win7RC on another partition of a different hard drive, and that was super fact and responsive as this was when first installed. Obviously the slow down isn't huge, but it is definitely noticeable.

Consider an operating system like a car.

Both start out brand new, nothing wrong, fast as heck (ahem.. except for some Operating Systems/Cars).

Over time both the car and OS receive wear and tear, both lose performance, noticeably as you stated, but nothing HUGE if you keep it maintained. Sure there are tools to help kick up the performance a tad bit though, those usually do not help that long.

Nothing stays the same as when you first got it, its physically and digitally impossible. There is ALWAYS something changing whether it is visibly noticeable or not.

 

[Zidane24]

I have always thought that Windows is like a fresh sandwich that you would eat immediately or would spoil over time. Due to temp files gathering up, freagmentation, startup programs (some add themselves....)services, and registry clutter....things go the way of the tortoise rea fast. My only reccomendation is to check your startup list and consult with others for a reg cleaner safe for Windows 7 (if you say ccleaner don't use it right now....kills 7 because of what it gets rid of)

Good ole Smilies to compare Windows too

 

[aheyn]

lol, I'm not sure if comparing an OS to a car is exactly suitable! Cars wear down because parts and components wear down from repeated use, whereas assuming other things identical - if you opened and closed a program 1000 times, it won't 'wear' down just for that act. If you sat and revved the engine continually or went over the same bumpy road repeatedly, you'd wear down the engine and suspension. But I get the general gist

I guess I'm just wondering exactly what areas would cause slow downs. As I said, I auto defrag each week so their is no real significant fragmentation to speak of. I know some programs add services that will start on boot etc and cause slowdowns, but what else? Registry fills with some incorrect entries etc (Boostspeed cleans this up, and deletes temporary files from installs etc)... just wondering what other things would cause this pronounced slowing down?

 

[Dark Nova Gamer]

lol, I'm not sure if comparing an OS to a car is exactly suitable! Cars wear down because parts and components wear down from repeated use, whereas assuming other things identical - if you opened and closed a program 1000 times, it won't 'wear' down just for that act. If you sat and revved the engine continually or went over the same bumpy road repeatedly, you'd wear down the engine and suspension. But I get the general gist

I guess I'm just wondering exactly what areas would cause slow downs. As I said, I auto defrag each week so their is no real significant fragmentation to speak of. I know some programs add services that will start on boot etc and cause slowdowns, but what else? Registry fills with some incorrect entries etc (Boostspeed cleans this up, and deletes temporary files from installs etc)... just wondering what other things would cause this pronounced slowing down?

When I said wear and tear I ment from everyday use.

Car - Driving to work, running errands, misc.
OS - Working with files, browsing online, listening to music, etc.

 

[Lee]

Is it really slowing down (it probably is), or is it as you get used to it you are getting used to the speed of the machine. My machine is fast (Gateway FX-7026 Intel Core2 Quad with 16 Gb of memory), and when it was new a year ago (damn time flies) it was fast. Now a year later it seems a little slower; is that because of the O/S or just something that is perceived. :huh:

 

[zigzag3143]

windows slowing down

Hey all,

I'm actually running Windows 7 RC, but have found it to be the case with this also.

Always after a few weeks/months, Windows slows down considerably from when you first installed it. This is despite my having auto defrag on every week, cleaning up temp files etc.

I know more services might be installed with programs, but other than this what do people think is the reason for this 'bit rot' of sorts?

When I was testing out drivers I installed Win7RC on another partition of a different hard drive, and that was super fact and responsive as this was when first installed. Obviously the slow down isn't huge, but it is definitely noticeable.

It is inevitible that windows will get slower. think of all the application we install, and all the ways we adjust thins. they have to be stored in registry. as registry grows it takes longer to read it (not much if it only had to be read once) and the number of files grow.

Its also not like you can shrink windows by removing apps. there is a folder in windows called winsxs that grows huge. When 32 bit win is frehly installed that winsxs file is abt 4 gigs by the time its through its 10, or 15, 0r 30gigs.

Windows slowdown is both software related (user profile, apps, winsxs) and hardware related disk drives run slowly and so it takes longer to find things

If you want to keep you system as fast as possible install as few apps as you can anddefrag the HD, clean the registry, and dont modify tons of things in your user profile

Hope this helps

Ken

 

[Orbital Shark]

It is inevitible that windows will get slower. think of all the application we install, and all the ways we adjust thins. they have to be stored in registry. as registry grows it takes longer to read it (not much if it only had to be read once) and the number of files grow.

Its also not like you can shrink windows by removing apps. there is a folder in windows called winsxs that grows huge. When 32 bit win is frehly installed that winsxs file is abt 4 gigs by the time its through its 10, or 15, 0r 30gigs.

Windows slowdown is both software related (user profile, apps, winsxs) and hardware related disk drives run slowly and so it takes longer to find things

If you want to keep you system as fast as possible install as few apps as you can anddefrag the HD, clean the registry, and dont modify tons of things in your user profile

Hope this helps

Ken

+1 Ken, the more the registry gets 'crowded' the more is read when accessing certain parts. It may only be a fraction of a second but if you're anything like me then you notice it. Unfortunately there's not much that can be done

If you want to keep you system as fast as possible install as few apps as you can anddefrag the HD, clean the registry, and dont modify tons of things in your user profile

I wouldn't trust a registry cleaner though, they can pick up on things that are needed e.g. Ccleaner tells me there's errors on a 100% clean install, just IMO




Jeff

 

[BuzWeaver]

I have always thought that Windows is like a fresh sandwich that you would eat immediately or would spoil over time. Due to temp files gathering up, freagmentation, startup programs (some add themselves....)services, and registry clutter....things go the way of the tortoise rea fast. My only reccomendation is to check your startup list and consult with others for a reg cleaner safe for Windows 7 (if you say ccleaner don't use it right now....kills 7 because of what it gets rid of)

Good ole Smilies to compare Windows too

I find I don't have any issues with CCleaner if I Uncheck Missing Shared DLLs, Active X and Class Issues. I use Acronis True Image Home and it has a great build in System Cleaner.

 

[Funkyfresh]

the reasons for slowing down have been put well in the above posts.

The best way of keeping things running slowly is to keep the machine fresh to start with...my golden rule is - dont load unecessary apps

I use Total uninstall (TU) to take snapshots before/after a normal install. then when you decide you no longer need the app, TU will remove all registrty entries/dll/services etc that may not be totally removed. Most apps will leave behind various bits of clutter, particularly in the registry

Also, it has the benefit of allowing you to see what an app installs, in case you think there may be virus/malware etc in an install (torrents anyone?!)


I havent seen much real world evidence of registry cleaners speeding things up - they give you a "feel good" factor of believing your machine is less cluttered, but I personally havent noticed any speed boosts. Plus in the wrong hands they can be dangerous if you dont understand what you are removing


martin

 

[DarkXeno]

We all have been here and will continue to be first install the machine works great but slows down over time, then we debate if we should wipe the machine and reload. In the past that was hours of work with Win2k pro, XP, and Vista after I setup the OS drivers and standard software I used I would make a Ghost copy of the drive that way in a few months of what ever I was doing I could quickly reload the machine, Win7 has cut down the time for install so I'm debating on what to do with that.

Funkyfresh I'm going to look into Total Uninstall since I test software for our company I kill things all the time, see my reason for a ghost copy. If it helps me keep from reloading and I can see what its doing in the reg Im all on that one.

 

[zigzag3143]

slow down

the reasons for slowing down have been put well in the above posts.

The best way of keeping things running slowly is to keep the machine fresh to start with...my golden rule is - dont load unecessary apps

I use Total uninstall (TU) to take snapshots before/after a normal install. then when you decide you no longer need the app, TU will remove all registrty entries/dll/services etc that may not be totally removed. Most apps will leave behind various bits of clutter, particularly in the registry

Also, it has the benefit of allowing you to see what an app installs, in case you think there may be virus/malware etc in an install (torrents anyone?!)


I havent seen much real world evidence of registry cleaners speeding things up - they give you a "feel good" factor of believing your machine is less cluttered, but I personally havent noticed any speed boosts. Plus in the wrong hands they can be dangerous if you dont understand what you are removing


martin

My motto is install little and make a backuk of that image, so if it gets slower I can just reinstall the slim version

Ken

 

[VeeEss]

I don't have any software update ever and my systems do not slow down and grow negligibly. Granted, I don't game, all I use a computer for is browsing, documents, CAS, and programming, so I don't really need updated software for anything. Even for those who do need some programs updated, they certainly don't need all of their software to update. I mean, really, who needs the most recent update to their JVM so now their java software can run flops more accurately on an Itanium 2?!

Turn off those updates!

Oh and clear out those temporary folders. OS bloat and slowed performance is a user-induced problem if you ask me.

 

[BuzWeaver]

the reasons for slowing down have been put well in the above posts.

The best way of keeping things running slowly is to keep the machine fresh to start with...my golden rule is - dont load unecessary apps

I use Total uninstall (TU) to take snapshots before/after a normal install. then when you decide you no longer need the app, TU will remove all registrty entries/dll/services etc that may not be totally removed. Most apps will leave behind various bits of clutter, particularly in the registry

Also, it has the benefit of allowing you to see what an app installs, in case you think there may be virus/malware etc in an install (torrents anyone?!)


I havent seen much real world evidence of registry cleaners speeding things up - they give you a "feel good" factor of believing your machine is less cluttered, but I personally havent noticed any speed boosts. Plus in the wrong hands they can be dangerous if you dont understand what you are removing


martin

How user friendly would you rate this?

 

[Funkyfresh]

How user friendly would you rate this?

Pretty friendly. If you know roughly how Windows works -ie a basic understanding of what the registry does, for instance, you'll be fine..

Not for the peeps who think upgrading OS's is fine or dont understand the difference between a partition and a physical disk..(just as an example of user knowledge, not whats required to use TU, BTW)

 

[Mr Puffin]

It is inevitible that windows will get slower. think of all the application we install, and all the ways we adjust thins. they have to be stored in registry. as registry grows it takes longer to read it (not much if it only had to be read once) and the number of files grow.

Its also not like you can shrink windows by removing apps. there is a folder in windows called winsxs that grows huge. When 32 bit win is frehly installed that winsxs file is abt 4 gigs by the time its through its 10, or 15, 0r 30gigs.

Windows slowdown is both software related (user profile, apps, winsxs) and hardware related disk drives run slowly and so it takes longer to find things

If you want to keep you system as fast as possible install as few apps as you can anddefrag the HD, clean the registry, and dont modify tons of things in your user profile

Hope this helps

Ken

My only question is why does windows need the regestry for some things I understand but for example Mac and Linux don't use it there for it doesn't really slow down
why dont they need one
and for windows cant they make it to where it only loads the nescissary regestry stuff and make a secondary one for other programs and other things that would make it much faster in the long run

and in genral every system will slow over time do to things on startup and ware on your hard drive and some fragmentation

 

[Funkyfresh]

Re Mac/Linux OS's they don’t have registry but each app has a separate settings file generally (from the small amount I know). Back in Windows 3, the registry did little more than hold file associations, each app having an ini file to hold settings, but with 95 MS expanded its use to make it central repository for each apps settings and windows settings in general. I assume they took that decision based on performance and I'd imagine manageability and standardisation of settings.

the registry is an indexed database, so having a separate one for each app i think would actually impede performance. Again, I’m making some broad assumptions here, so if anyone has a better explanation, feel free to correct me..

 

[MUff1N]

Daily Maintenance keeps your OS Speedy & Fast!

My system doesn't slow down at all, not even over time because I do daily maintenance to prevent it.
I haven't done a clean install since RC 7100 & I still bootup in 20 seconds to desktop!
Most of the time systems slowdowns are do to the following reasons--->

1. To much Crap added to it that adds other stuff that creates unwanted startup programs.
(Fix, control what starts up with Windows & don't add toolbars & stuff like that to your browser that adds other stuff!)

2. Fragmentation of systems & boot sector blocks.
(Fix: Use a program like PerfectDisk which defragments these & keeps it speedy! PD is the only program I know of that puts all the boot sector files first on the HD which is the fastest part, therefore faster bootup time!
Defragment Daily not Weekly!!!)

3. Spyware, Adware, Malware, Trojans & Backdoor worms running on a system unknown to user.
(Fix: Do Daily scans for Spyware & Malware. Make sure your protection software is up to date!)

If you take care of this systems maintenance on a daily basis (not weekly or monthly), it won't slow down.

 

[johnhoh]

One reason is that no version of windows will work unless it has a hard disk to write to. You cannot tell windows not to grow. If you had windows on a DVD (for instance) with no paging file there would be no built-in ability for windows to grow itself, and you could control its use of the hard drive.

 

[pparks1]

Is it really slowing down (it probably is), or is it as you get used to it you are getting used to the speed of the machine

No, they get slower over time. Especially for those who don't tend to take the time to do machine maintenance and aren't particular about what they might install and try out. For many people who just install and simply use the computer...when you format and start from scratch it's almost as if you have upgraded the computer. Of course, with time it will just slow down again.