My desktop has slowed down

[The_Techie]

Considering that XP has been around for almost a a decade and 7 is not released, I would expect the results to be overwhelming.

See my previous post, only about 70,000 more results against Windows XP

I'm running XP here on all machines except for the Mac Pro and never had a virus or malware. I had malware picked up in emails, webpages and on USB sticks but none has ever infected my machines since - DOS 5 and Win 3.1 days.

I've had driver installs and registry corruptions destroy Windows 9x and XP installations, the registry corruptions on the XP. Windows if adequately secured can work but it has to be secured that way FIRST. TheTechie is probably very competent in this regard. Good for him.

Can't decide whether to feel flattered or not

 

[d0b33]

See my previous post, only about 70,000 more results against Windows XP

So confirmed then... XP is pretty solid.

 

[The_Techie]

So confirmed then... XP is pretty solid.

Quite. Of course you can break any operating system by avoiding best practices (even Ubuntu, which has 72,000 results by the way ) but that hardly makes it the fault of the operating system.

 

[killadoob]

Hahaha ya ok, pity we never got that damn poll.

Ubuntu gets kuk slow after like 1 minute of use

I am only joking aqua

 

[PeterCH]

Can't decide whether to feel flattered or not

Well, you can achieve what many other 'experts' can't. Don't be flattered.

 

[The_Techie]

Hahaha ya ok, pity we never got that damn poll.

Ubuntu gets kuk slow after like 1 minute of use

I am only joking aqua

Well, you can achieve what many other 'experts' can't. Don't be flattered.

Fair enough

 

[killadoob]

Well yea 220000 results is a lot, damn 70k is a lot of windows 7 as well. So maybe both versions still suffer the same fate. I wonder if the slow down could be attributed to the hdd possibly as well?

 

[d0b33]

Hahaha ya ok, pity we never got that damn poll.

Ubuntu gets kuk slow after like 1 minute of use

I am only joking aqua

You should get a placebo button for those XP machines...

A placebo button is a push-button that appears to do something, but actually has no effect, like a placebo. In other cases a control like a thermostat may not be connected.

Although non functional they can give the user an illusion of control. In some cases the button may have been functional, but may have failed or been disabled during installation or maintenance. Only in relatively rare cases will the button have been deliberately designed to do nothing.[1]

 

[The_Techie]

Well yea 220000 results is a lot, damn 70k is a lot of windows 7 as well. So maybe both versions still suffer the same fate. I wonder if the slow down could be attributed to the hdd possibly as well?

Or possibly, as has been my hypothesis all along, the problem lies in the software being installed instead of the operating system it is run on

 

[Brawler]

My personal experiance on the matter.
Used Xp for many years and granted I probably visited dodgy websites and tested warez etc even with up to date anti virus etc XP needed a format at least every 3 months. Been doing the same stuff on my Vista machine for more than two years and it still feels the same as the day I installed, even through major hardware changes. For this reason alone I will never install xp again on my pc even though XP still has many positive points.

I also worked as a techie for over a year and lost count of how many XP machines I had to reformat. Its the strangest thing the computers can have next to nothing installed and they will be dog slow.

Techie im sure those high school machines you installed would have had extremely strict security policies in place limiting the kiddies permissions to fiddle.

Can't comment on Win7 yet.

 

[The_Techie]

Techie im sure those high school machines you installed would have had extremely strict security policies in place limiting the kiddies permissions to fiddle.

Only after a month or so, they weren't too keen on Group Policies but I insisted. :erm:

Well it seems to be a mixed bag of experiences when it comes to operating system slowdowns.

 

[Brawler]

maybe its a case of better drivers these days.

 

[bekdik]

I would suggest you try and ascertain the cause of your problem before carrying out any drastic 'fixes'.

In no particular sequence, here's a list of things to try:

1. Do you have any drives mapped? Having a non existent drive mapped will cause drastic slowdown.

2. From a command prompt, run msconfig, and disable all start-ups. See if machine is still slow. If it is, go through the arduous process of enabling running msconfig and enabling the start-ups one at a time until the culprit is found.

3. Ensure that you do NOT have more than one AV running!

4. Use task manager, go to processes tab, and click on cpu to sort cpu usage in descending mode. note which processes are making extreme use of your cpu.

5. Ensure that you you have more than about 15% of your C: drive free. If C: is very full, delete or move files. Things like music and videos are good candidates.

6. Check your swap space setting (can be found in properties of my computer) minimum values is 1.5 x memory size, try increasing it if it's close to this value.

7. If the slowness is associated with web browsing, it's probably a SAIX problem, a router problem or a dns problem:

7a switch router off, wait 30 secs and switch on again.
7b from command prompt run ipconfig /flushdns
7c try running a different browser, it may be add-ons. If your browser has the option to run without add-ons, try that option.

These are a few things easily tried before rebuilding ...

 

[reddevilandy10]

Use SysInternals Process Explorer rather to see if it could be a background process that's killing your performance. Gives a breakdown on the threads in the processes too, which came in handy using Flock one day.

How many add ons you run with FF? That could be why FF takes a while to load.

 

[czc]

7. If the slowness is associated with web browsing, it's probably a SAIX problem, a router problem or a dns problem:

7a switch router off, wait 30 secs and switch on again.
7b from command prompt run ipconfig /flushdns
7c try running a different browser, it may be add-ons. If your browser has the option to run without add-ons, try that option.

Sometimes clearing the cache also helps.

 

[bekdik]

Sometimes clearing the cache also helps.

ADSL router's cache would be cleared via power cycle. PC cache is cleared with flishdns.

 

[Nameite]

PC slowing down possible reasons (what I came across):

Spy/Ad-ware: Run spy-bot search and destroy

Corrupt/messy registry - run a reg cleaner like tune-up 2009

Hardware overheating - open pc up and see if dust is parking in the heatsink, same for GPU

Still doesnt work? Format

Still dont work? Hardware failure, time for new pc

And to further the debate with the techie and such, I agree with the techie, proper maintenance and avoiding dodgy websites can result in a healthy OS, all OS's can be fooked, but more malwares target WinXP, if Vista or Win7 is the most popular OS for the next 7 years and operated by unskilled/inexperienced user they too will have the same sh*t.

My 2C

 

[killadoob]

Ok so nameite please explain what maintenance should be done for someone who boots into their pc, loads pastel works, opens email checks mail. Nothing else gets done, please what should i do? 4 months later pastel takes 2 minutes to open, updating takes 5 times longer than a fresh install. What has this person who uses pastel and outlook done to wreck the pc's speed?

 

[bekdik]

Ok so nameite please explain what maintenance should be done for someone who boots into their pc, loads pastel works, opens email checks mail. Nothing else gets done, please what should i do? 4 months later pastel takes 2 minutes to open, updating takes 5 times longer than a fresh install. What has this person who uses pastel and outlook done to wreck the pc's speed?

May be worth asking pastel?

 

[killadoob]

May be worth asking pastel?

Really?

Then they will ask why does pastel open just fine when you have loaded the pc fresh. Considering no data is stored on the actual pc it seems even more strange.

Sadly you can blame software all you like but xp does slow down and programs do become slower. Not that it matters anymore if the windows 7 test is a success then by by xp hello windows 7 for them.

No more 2 minutes of waiting for shyte to happen . For some reason windows 7 opens pastel almost instantly, even xp freshly installed took 10-15 seconds. Amazed how fast windows 7 opens pastel compared to vista and xp in fact.