What Slows Windows Down?

[MICHAEL]

When I read this article, I thought about the folks
who say that Vista runs faster than XP- for some
that is probably true. But, it is usually only because
Vista was a recent clean install, and folks have spent
years loading XP up with all sorts of software. Even
if software is uninstalled can still leave a cluster fuk
of entries and dlls behind. Do a clean install of XP,
it'll be a rocket ship.

A fair comparison would be to make some judgments
after a few months and 50 installed programs later.

Anyway, I am not surprised by the worst offender on
system performance. I'm just surprised McAfee wasn't
number two.

http://www.thepcspy.com/articles/other/what_slows_windows_down/1

Any computer user that's owned and installed software onto their computer knows that the more
you install, the slower the beast runs. Most also know that it's not just quantity, and that
what you install plays a large factor in how slowly your computer runs.
The aim of this article is to find out what types of application slow down a computer the most.
I'm going to be measuring the"speed" as the time it takes to shutdown, restart and get back to
desktop (with auto-login) and start an application in the computer's start-up settings.

continued.....

 

[deebs]

Your observations seem to be confirmed here Michael.

I removed Vista 64 bit beta 2 and re-installed XP Pro (retail).

XP Pro whizzes along.

I wonder if our observations suggest that an operating system really
should cater for a full reinstall?

Implication: spec of new kit changes from one drive (OS, programs & user
data) to two drives (OS & programs on one drive, user data on the second)?

It would seem do-able as a new spec and perhaps allow re-installs that
preserve user data in a trauma-less fashion?

 

[Michael Palumbo]

When I read this article, I thought about the folks
who say that Vista runs faster than XP- for some
that is probably true. But, it is usually only because
Vista was a recent clean install, and folks have spent
years loading XP up with all sorts of software. Even
if software is uninstalled can still leave a cluster fuk
of entries and dlls behind. Do a clean install of XP,
it'll be a rocket ship.

A fair comparison would be to make some judgments
after a few months and 50 installed programs later.

Anyway, I am not surprised by the worst offender on
system performance. I'm just surprised McAfee wasn't
number two.

http://www.thepcspy.com/articles/other/what_slows_windows_down/1

Any computer user that's owned and installed software onto their computer
knows that the more you install, the slower the beast runs. Most also know
that it's not just quantity, and that what you install plays a large
factor in how slowly your computer runs.
The aim of this article is to find out what types of application slow down
a computer the most. I'm going to be measuring the"speed" as the time it
takes to shutdown, restart and get back to desktop (with auto-login) and
start an application in the computer's start-up settings.

continued.....

It's not the number of applications you install, it's the number of
applications that run at startup.

I have literally hundreds of programs installed on my XP partition (and I
couldn't even begin to guess how many programs I have installed on my Linux
partition since it's all FREE!!!) and I have no slowdown problems.

How?

Because I disable any and every programs (except virus-scan and my IR
blaster software) that insists on setting up some crap that wants to start
at boot time, or after I log in.

No, I don't need Adobe Fast Start loading Adobe Reader EVERY TIME I start my
computer, no I don't need Power DVD's remote control software running since
I don't have their remote control, nor do I need any of the software I use
(except Windows/Linux) to check for updates automatically. Most of them do
that when you run the actual program anyway so why have something running
ALL THE TIME to do it too?

And I CERTAINLY don't need Limewire running 24/7, yeesh! That's insane.


Mic