What the hell slows Windows down?

[Prince]

This is an issue I've had with every single Windows version I've used since they came out with the registry with 95. Format it, install the OS, drivers, load it up with your apps. Use it. Everything runs fine for a couple of months, and then in time the cougar just becomes a turtle.

I use Ad-Aware and Norton, I defrag, I run a virus-free system etc. I don't visit that many sites and none that I don't trust. I use FF, not MSIE, to browse. And yet, in the time span of about 2-3 months, the system will become noticably slow compared to how it was. This is most evident with web browsing and multitasking. It's like there's just no get up and go. So I am forced to reformat and start over.

Why is this?

[Plaid13]

all sorts of crap gets installed and uninstalled and most of it leaves trash in your registry some programs install dozens and dozens of things in the registry. lots of stuff you dont even know about could be installing itself. basicly windows is evil but software companys keep making stuff mostly just for windows so its a evil you need to deal with. just accept format and reinstall as basic maitnance.

[Prince]

Is there no way to simplify the reinstallation of the OS,drivers and common apps with something like Norton Ghost?

[cyrnel]

norton ghost?

Sure, next time you install get to a basic setup with updates and make an image. That won't help prevent the problems but it'll speed reinstallation. If you're reinstalling every few months there are certainly things you can do to prevent the problem. It comes down to time vs. benefit. 1) You can dig a bunch, learn a bunch, change your behavior, and still fall prey to bugs and issues that lead to a reinstall. 2) You can speed a reinstall and do it weekly. 3) Pick some combination that works for your situation.

The problem may be one or two huge effects, or the result of 1000 little cuts. The 1001st cut might have triggered one of the huge effects. The more you observe, the easier to avoid the problem next time.

Can you identify what's slow? Are any particular sequences noticably lethargic? Bootup to login, login to desktop, application launch, long or short periodic mystery pauses, continuous disk activity or every time you do something, network access. ...

Find the low hanging fruit. Big gains for minimal cost. What's your system doing? Disk access is one of the slowest common things your computer does so it's often a source of problems. You can spend a couple $thousand on a beautiful disk system and still be slow if it's being used as RAM. (I'll ignore hardware configuration errors that usually show as alerts in device manager.)

Assume a semi-stable booted system. What's the memory picture? Open task manager, performance tab. What's Commit Peak vs. Total Physical Memory? If peak has touched total physical you're low on RAM, or have too many goodies, and are swapping memory to disk. Switch to the process tab. Click the mem usage column to sort by descending. Anything up top that surprises you? Firefox extension memory leaks are a common issue. Some of the most useful extensions are the worst offenders. (i.e. adblock) Identify anything using more than 10-20MB that isn't a primary application (PShop, Office, etc). What are they and why are they huge?

Task Manager again, process tab. Click the CPU column to sort descending. Leave it open and work for a bit. Anything besides System Idle Process sticking up top for long? Why?

Look at memory and CPU again, but after the system has been used half a day. Changes? Memory usage after leaks have built up can look wildly different.

Does your unhidden taskbar look like an icon Christmas party? At some point all the goodies result in your nice new box existing to keep itself updated, scanned, protected, and displaying advertisements. Whittle things down to what's necessary. Discipline man!

If the slowdown hit all at once, can you recall anything that changed shortly before? Installs, hardware changes, etc.

Also, in the worst of cases things can live outside the "normal" world viewed by task manager and standard process watchers. That's the realm of rootkits or hardware problems & and is rare compared to the usual cruft found on boxes. Be aware those things exist but don't jump on them as the source of all ills.

Anyway, I'm rambling. Add carefully. Observe before and after so you have a chance of noticing what happened. Infinite internet monkeys have documented PC performance and fixes, so information is out there to be found.

[Redjake]

how much do you have running in the system tray? hit control-alt-delete and look at the processes running. that could be your problem. go into MSCONFIG and disable EVERYTHING on startup besides antivirus and a couple of other apps.

[soccerchamp76]

Well, here are a few things you can do to speed up your system, call them 'tweaks' if you please:
1) Right click on your diskdrive and hit 'Properties' then click on Disk Cleanup. Delete unnecessary files/folders, etc.
2) Defrag your computer. Think of it as sorting a library, when you take a book and replace it somewhere else, it will take a long time to find. Sort it, and its faster. Same concept. I recommend 'Executive Software Diskeeper' as a 3rd party defragger.
3) Download the free version (or pay for the pro version, it cleans it deeper) of Registry Mechanic. This will sort of clean your registry which can help speed your system after install/uninstalls and will help you not have to reformat.
4) I use Ad-Aware, SpywareBlaster, and Spybot S&D for antivirus and AVG for antivirus. I recommend using AVG instead of Norton as Norton is a resource hog and uses a lot of HDD space and memory.
5) Check your startup log to see what programs start when Windows start. Many programs upon installation have them open constantly even when you aren't using them (Quicktime, etc.).

[liquidlight]

I've got a trick that I've used countless times that often gets overlooked:

Nuke your temp files.

There will be one or two folders that contain "temporary" files on your computer that are supposed to speed up application access because they are indexed by the operating system for streamlined delivery. In WinXP there is usally one located in %WindowsRoot%\Temp and another in "Documents and Settings\%User Name%\Local Settings\Temp. If you're not sure what they are for your computer right clicking My Computer, selecting Properties, the Environment Variables TEMP and TMP will be assigned and it will give you the path for them.

These folders on a clean boot should be COMPLETELY EMPTY, anything left in them is an artifact from either bad code or failed shutdowns and they will adversely affect your user experience.

The other temporary files that you'll want to keep track of are your Temporary Internet Files stored by FF or MSIE. By default the sizes of these stores is quite large on modern machines, anything over 20 megs is superfluous and can actually do more harm than good.

[cyrnel]

Check ccleaner for a great little temp file cleaner. Does registry stuff too, but trash & temps left around by the system and various apps are its thing. It's accessible directly from the trash context menu. Free/donationware.

ccleaner.com

[bendsley]

What the hell slows Windows down?

I guess my answer would be, well.......Windows itself slows Windows down. It's bloated for one. 40 Million+ lines of code is enough for anyone to scream over. I'm not bashing Windows, as I run a mostly Windows shop here, and Linux has it's bloat in there too. Windows uses a registry to keep track of things installed, deleted, changed, etc. When companies write software, a lot of times when you remove it, it doesn't take the registry information out.

This is partly because if something else has possibly over-written one of the keys, and it's removed, it can wreak other havoc on your system. The registry is kind of a helpful tool sometimes, and your own worst enemy other times.

I'm not a fan of the registry my self. Too much crap in there to go looking for, and it makes it easy for malware, adware, etc. to install itself into, making it almost impossible to remove.

[WillyPete]

I second the temp files.

And don't be so quick to dis IE, Firefox also stores loads of temp files.
IE can be set to delete them at the program's shutdown, I think FF can as well.

Close ALL attachments BEFORE your close or delete the opened mail.
These get left as files in your temp folders too.

Wipe the page file:
You can download tweakui for XP and set it to wipe the page file at system shutdown.

Set the pagefile at 1.5 times physical RAM. 512mb RAM = 750MB page file.
Set it on a different partition to your system install. eg: Windows on C:, set pagefile on D: and 'unset' the C: pagefile.
Remember to set the D: before you kill the C: pagefile.

Set the minimum and maximum pagefiles size as the same, following the 1.5 rule.
Really, what's 200MB on today's 200GB drives?
The reason for this is that Win starts out with the minimum and WILL use up to the maximum.
Why bother setting a minimum if you are going to limit it anyway? With a fixed size it doesn't need to manage the page file size, just write to it.

Outlook or other mal programs.
Reduce your mailbox. No, not just your inbox, you entire mailbox.
Outlook dies with 1.9GB sized .pst files anyway. Archive before you get to 1GB.
Delete your old sent stuff or archive it to another .pst and CLOSE the pst file by rightclicking the 'Archive Folder' in the folder list and clicking 'close'.
If you have a large mail folde ropen, your system WILL open the database index for it. Larger the file, the bigger the database in memory.
Empty you deleted items folder on exit.

Don't save stuff to your desktop.
Save it to designated areas on your data partition and place a shortcut to that folder on your desktop instead. Windows catalogues all those folders on the desktop and inside those folders at startup.

Turn off unnecessary services:
http://www.tweakxp.com/ has lists of what you need.
Things like the indexing service is a big pain.
Sure it can help you find files, but google's desktop search is leaner and a faster index.

[billege]

When I read your thread title I really lol'd and said "what doesn't slow down windows?"

[Wingless]

One thing you might wanna try is to slipstream/customize your next XP install CD. nLite is a program where you can configure exactly what does, or doesn't, get installed when you run the Windows installation. It'll help take out the crap you don't need. Also it can/will integrate the 100's of Windows security updates into the CD itself.

TweakUI is an excellent program, as well as turning things off in msconfig (use with caution!). Those will help speed up your system.

[soccerchamp76]

I think I am one of the few Windows lovers. I absolutey hate Macs and I spent the time to learn how to use a computer.
Now that I know how to use a computer (I built the one I use currently), and Windows, I never find it slowing down at all.

I simply use all my spyware tools, antivirus tools [AVG Free] that all cost a total of $0.00. I use the free version of Diskeeper for defragmentation, and RegistryMechanic to clean out the registry. I use CCleaner to deepclean unnecessary files as well.
My computer that is 1.5+ years old is as fast as the day I got it.

[viejo gringo]

Had the same problem---finally shut recovery off and did a full system scan with AVG---the found an article on Google about a
trojan that sets in the registry and system32 directory that begins with a d, and changes names every time you reboot---took a while to dig them out, but the old Dell runs like new...