Ask Slashdot: Are Post-Install Windows Slowdowns Inevitable?

blackest_k writes: I recently reinstalled Windows 7 Home on a laptop. A factory restore (minus the shovelware), all the Windows updates, and it was reasonably snappy. Four weeks later it's running like a slug, and now 34 more updates to install. The system is clear of malware (there are very few additional programs other than chrome browser). It appears that Windows slows down Windows! Has anyone benchmarked Windows 7 as installed and then again as updated? Even better has anybody identified any Windows update that put the slug into sluggish? Related: an anonymous reader asks: Our organization's PCs are growing ever slower, with direct hard-drive encryption in place, and with anti-malware scans running ever more frequently. The security team says that SSDs are the only solution, but the org won't approve SSD purchases. It seems most disk scanning could take place after hours and/or under a lower CPU priority, but the security team doesn't care about optimization, summarily blaming sluggishness on lack of SSDs. Are they blowing smoke?

Comments

Re:Nope

[Billly Gates]

That is a poor way to do this.

No apps SHOULD NOT write to the registry ever with the exception of an installation. Yes ask a DBA about forks or run Firefox for extended periods of time whose profile on SQLite will slow its startup over time :-)

Also what about security? Do you really want any app writting to it? If your browser writes to it and have a crafty Russian Flash app then through a bypass a website can do whatever it wants via your registry. This is a no no from that perspective as well.

Infact Windows 7 has virtualized registry changes to not corrupt the real copy. When an app you install fails it will ask you if it installed properly? This is to undo the changes.

The proper way is to have a service that runs as admin but even that should not write to the registry all the time and UAC prevents this which is what pissed people off about Vista. Microsoft's plan was to get the users mad at the vendors for writting shitty annoying apps. Not MS for it's OS. But Vista forced poorly written apps to be rewritten for Windows7 which will not impact the system.

Re: Hate to be that guy, but Linux

[binarylarry]

Wow you sound very knowledgeable. I hope you'll expound further on your funroll loops theory.