Do updates previously applied to XP slow it down?

[Miriam Moore]

Hello,
I have a 2 GHz machine at home. Not super fast compared with modern
machines, I suppose, but fast enough, I would've thought. I had noticed that
it has been getting very slow over the past year. I had initially suspected
virus or registry problems,so I reformatted the hard disk, and completely
reinstalled everthing from scratch.

I've applied all the recent XP updates, reinstalled Ofice 2003, ZoneLabs
firewall, and Grisoft anti-virus. The PC is as slow as before, so I was
thinking, is it possible that updates applied to XP have the side-effect of
slowing down the entire XP installation?

Curious,
Paul



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[Detlev Dreyer]

I've applied all the recent XP updates, reinstalled Ofice 2003,
ZoneLabs firewall, and Grisoft anti-virus. The PC is as slow as before,
so I was thinking, is it possible that updates applied to XP have the
side-effect of slowing down the entire XP installation?

Nope. Superfluous software like "ZoneLabs firewall" may slow down your
system.

Paul

Peter, Paul or Miriam.

 

[Bob Harris]

In theory no, but in practice yes.

When I first built my PC back in 2003 many operations were faster than they
are today.

But, back then I had only XP (pre-SP1) and a few programs installed, maybe 4
Gig total.

Since then I have installed many pathces, service packs, software, and have
collected many personal files. So my total is now many tens of Gigs.

Although I defrag regularrly, I am sure that files needed to run the PC are
now scattered over a much larger region of disk space.

The size of my registry has doubled, so any operation using the registry is
likely slower, and nearly everthing uses the registry.

There are more processes running in the background, since many installed
programs have "helper" applications that run 24/7. Do a single CTRL-ALT-DEL
to invoke the XP task manager, then look at the process tab. While it is
possible to disable most of these programs, that can be very dangerous,
unless you know what you are doing, since some are essential to running XP
and others might be related to your anti-virus. For more information on
services, see http://www.majorgeeks.com/page.php?id=12

By the way, I disagree with the previous post. Something like Zone Alarm
firewall will not noticeable slow a PC.

But, be aware that some anti-virus and some spyware programs run in the
backgroup continually checking files. Those can slow the PC. I have set
Norton Anti-Virus to scan files only on acccess, not continually. I also
run a total PC scan about once a week. I also have SpyBot (free
anti-spyware) running in the background to protect against a list of
specific threats.

Search-type functions are definitely slower. A full-PC anti-virus scan is
slower. Both are related to the number/size of files on the disk.

However, the worst slowdown occurred with some XP patch within the last
year. Now every time that I boot, I have to wait over a minute for some
sort of scan. This might be part of windows update or windows genuine
advantage.

As a user you can defrag, clean cache/temp areas, remove old programs that
you no longer use, move some files off of the PC to CDs or DVDs, ask some
programs to not run 24/7, etc. But, the nature of windows and windows
programs is to grow with time, even with zero user data. Bigger is slower.

 

[MAP]

Hello,
I have a 2 GHz machine at home. Not super fast compared with modern
machines, I suppose, but fast enough, I would've thought. I had
noticed that it has been getting very slow over the past year. I had
initially suspected virus or registry problems,so I reformatted the
hard disk, and completely reinstalled everthing from scratch.

I've applied all the recent XP updates, reinstalled Ofice 2003,
ZoneLabs firewall, and Grisoft anti-virus. The PC is as slow as
before, so I was thinking, is it possible that updates applied to XP
have the side-effect of slowing down the entire XP installation?

Curious,
Paul



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In the past their have been several hotfixes that slow a system down
sometimes to a crawl.Sometimes it's the hotfix itself other times the update
does not play nice with other programs that are on your system.
The key is to research just what hotfixes you install....but that takes time
so most people just install all of them and be done with it...a very bad
idea.
Example: Feb's patch tuesday their were 15 updates 1 of them were for
windows defender/windows one care I don't use them (their crap). the other
14 updates all pertain to a workstation (an office enviorment with user
restrictions) for the home user you didn't need them. If I'm wrong someone
please correct me, include WHY this is wrong so I can research it.

http://ultimatewindowssecurity.com/

 

[polomora]

All,

Many thanks for the extensive replies.

Bob, you're definitely right, something within the past year has
appreciably slowed down the PC performance.

Regards,
Paul

[I sent the message on behalf on my sister from her PC]

 

[GHalleck]

Nope. Superfluous software like "ZoneLabs firewall" may slow down your
system.

Hmmm...ZoneAlarm isn't exactly superfluous. Whilst it, or any other
firewall or application in start-up may slow down the computer, it is
sometimes the bloated updates (priority, critical or otherwise) that
necessarily patch the Windows system will also contribute to the issue.
That is, there is nothing better than properly programming in the first
place than follow-on error correction.

 

[Detlev Dreyer]

Hmmm...ZoneAlarm isn't exactly superfluous. Whilst it, or any other
firewall or application in start-up may slow down the computer,

The built-in firewall (packet filter) does *not* slow down the system.

it is
sometimes the bloated updates (priority, critical or otherwise) that
necessarily patch the Windows system will also contribute to the issue.

This did not happen to any of my systems. You may want to specify the
system update/s (KB#) slowing down the system.