Installed about a year or more ago. Some kind of quad core processor, 16Gb ram, Windows 7 64 bit, SSD C & D drive. Using Microsoft anti virus stuff and nothing else., have done virus scans with malwarebytes. Have recently used cccleaner, didn't like it but I had to try it... Disks no higher than 80% used. I do have paging on but don't really need it.
Most stuff is fine once it's running, and internet speeds etc are fine, so is LAN.
But some basic things have got irritatingly slow. In particular, things in Explorer. Opening Explorer takes a couple of seconds. I can open a folder quick enough, whether it's on SSD, SATA or LAN drive. But if I right click on a file to look at Properties it takes about (literally) 4 seconds for the contact menu to come up, which is a long time. I don't believe I have any scanning going on which would cause that.
Anyone got any thoughts?
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Defrag?
You mentioned CCleaner, go back to Piriform and get Defraggler. Run a full defrag and then also run the offline defrag function ("Boot time defrag" in the settings menu) to defragment the page file and registry hives.
Run CCLeaner's registry clean function prior to that.
Fragmentation vomits on performance, especially for multiple small file accesses like when Explorer fires up and catalogues the disks and folders.
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Thanks TC, I'd assumed with fast disks (esp SSDs) that fragmentation wasn't anywhere near the problem it used to be back when I was a lad.
So I'll give it a go and report back :-)
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So far defraggled C & D and cccleaned the registry, no change really.
From opening the disk to the folder view is quick enough, it's when you get to file level that it seems to slow. Also got one or two programs which lag when starting them from desktop icons. It's only seconds but time is money :-)
I guess a rebuild is looming...
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Might the problem be something running in the background?
If you go to the tools tab in CCleaner you can check what programmes and utilities are running at startup. Surprising number in my case. Some, like those for mice/taskpads are probably needed. Others, and utilities associated with printers loomed large here along with updaters for I-tunes etc.
You can choose in CCleaner whether to delete or disable.
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>> I guess a rebuild is looming...
Yup. people can witter on about defrags, and various wonder tools with miraculous results, but its all rubbish. Windows (now hear this - thats EVERY version of windows) needs to be rebuilt every 18 months if you want it snappy.
Last edited by: VxFan on Fri 8 Mar 13 at 16:44
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Yeah, I know that's the answer. Too lazy at the moment though (and not enough time - off to Florida on Monday till Easter)
Might invest in a larger SSD to use as C drive, that way I can take my time a bit and end up with a decent sized spare for a laptop. 256Gb are around £130 at the mo.
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have you tried running a registry program, i got a ssd but i triansfered the paging file to the other hd, which is a 1tb hd, as i know ssd got a limited life with countless write and reads, check how many processes your pc is running and delete some of the runnig processes you dont need at startup.
also run a anti malaware program, that may detect if you got viruses that are runnig in the background.
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It's quite likely your machine has caught something nasty the windows antivirus can't deal with.
My windows 7 laptop (with fully up to date MS antivirus, and regular scanning) had recently got symptoms similar to your pc.
I tried the MS "off-line" defender, which has been useful in the past - but not this time.
So I downloaded the free version of Avast! (rated recommended in march 2013 PCPro, behind the (£19) Bitdefender) took the machine offline. Then uninstalled MS antivirus, and then installed Avast!
A "start-up scan" (which took hours) found lots of dubious stuff, including one of the many horrors Java seems to be letting in these days.
blogs.oracle.com/security/entry/security_alert_cve_2013_1493
My laptop is now back to normal.
Your mileage may vary, and Z may well be right.... but give this a shot first.
P.S. there is a service "windows defender" which doesn't run while MS AV is running. You may find it worth disabling it from services.msc if it is a nuisance (it will run when non-MS antivirus is used).
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>>Windows (now hear this - thats EVERY version of windows) needs to be rebuilt every 18 months
Really? This machine has been W7 for about 2 years, and it was Vista for about 2 years before that, I can't say I noticed it either slowing down or speeding up.
The girls XP machines have been so for about 3 years, can't say I've noticed much there either.
Does restoring from a backup work as well as rebuilding?
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>> >>Windows (now hear this - thats EVERY version of windows) needs to be rebuilt every
>> 18 months
>>
>> Really?
yes, really
>>This machine has been W7 for about 2 years, and it was Vista for
>> about 2 years before that, I can't say I noticed it either slowing down or
>> speeding up.
And there is the rub, as it happens gradually you dont notice it. Nor do you remember how snappy it was when it was first installed.
>> The girls XP machines have been so for about 3 years, can't say I've noticed
>> much there either.
See above
>> Does restoring from a backup work as well as rebuilding?
>>
It improves stuff a bit, but on the whole, No. It does not work as well as a reinstall.
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>>Nor do you remember how snappy it was when it was first installed.
Fair enough, but then you'd think I'd have noticed a jump up when moving from Vista to W7.
I shall try a new install in the next few days and see.
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Hmmm there's a thought. I take Ghost images of the C drive about every 3 or 4 months, maybe I'll drop one of those on and see how it is rather than going for a bottom up reload, which would take ages. Not really much new software goes onto my machine, though I recently put Office 2013 on.
Will wait till after my break and buy the new SSD to have a spare to play on...
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>> rather than going for a bottom up reload, which would take ages.
Shouldnt do, you build a system, and before you do anything else you load all the fixes on it, and then ghost it as your primary build.
And then its a simple matter to format the old disk and load the ghost image when you want a rebuild.
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Yeah I did that, but I also took one a bit after, once I'd loaded many of the apps I wanted. Need to sort through my libraries and work out what I've got.
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>> Windows (now hear this - thats EVERY version of windows) needs to
>> be rebuilt every 18 months if you want it snappy.
>>
Utter cobblers. I'm typing this on the work laptop, which is an archaic Dell on XP and now five years old.
It's actually rather snappier than it was when I got it and significantly more so than most of my colleagues' machines, even the newer ones.
But then I know how to look after it.
I haven't rebuilt a Win machine to get speed back since I discovered offline defragmentation[1]. Best option I've found so far is those Seagate hybrid drives. SSD speeds in most operations and don't need defragging to keep that up.
I'll agree that a fresh install is very fast, but once you've done all the updates, added the A/V suite and reinstalled all your other stuff, either you're back where you were or you weren't looking after it properly in the first place.
For XP users, replacing the rather useless task manager with the Sysinternals Process Explorer (much like the version in Se7en, only with knobs on) is a great way to track down things that are caning the machine.
[1] That was the missing piece of the puzzle. The rest of the puzzle consists of the usual suspects of axing unnecessary things that run on startup, keeping the registry tidy and defragging old skool disks.
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Tune up Ultilities helps my XP desktop to keep going as does an old skool Velociraptor HD...
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I'd rather gouge my eyeball out with a nail than do a full Windows re-install. It's bad enough when you have to, let alone when you don't.
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>> I'm typing this on the work laptop, which is an archaic Dell on XP and now five years old.
And I'm typing this on my 9 yr desktop Advent 3418 on WinXP, which also has never had Windows re-installed. If it has got any slower, I've not noticed. Still use it as my daily PC and works fine for what I want it for. Surfing, emailing, downloading movies, editing them, and burning to DVD.
My HP work PC is a year or two older. Got to be at least 10 yrs old. Yes, it's getting slower in its old age, but realistically it was slow to start off with. Soon we'll be getting new PCs with Win7 on them.
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I've just bought a s/h Vaio Z1 with SSD and Win 7 Pro. Starts up in under 20secs.. Now I might notice if that slows down.. but my XP takes mins - so I will never notice.
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>> >> I'm typing this on the work laptop, which is an archaic Dell on XP
>> and now five years old.
>>
>> And I'm typing this on my 9 yr desktop Advent 3418 on WinXP, which also
>> has never had Windows re-installed. If it has got any slower, I've not noticed.
Exactly. It happens slowly, so you don't notice.
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>> Utter cobblers. I'm typing this on the work laptop, which is an archaic Dell on
>> XP and now five years old.
>> It's actually rather snappier than it was when I got it
After 5 years You are either misguided, forgetful, overly optimistic, exaggerating or lying for effect.
Not sure which but like most people its probably forgetful.
>> I haven't rebuilt a Win machine to get speed back since I discovered offline defragmentation[1].
Defragmenting. Ah yes that old false utopia. All of it is crap, fragmentation is just one of MANY reasons windows slow down, not even the primary one so its nowhere near the best way to speed it up.
and of course you rely on all those old witch doctor tools I see. Every nerd has their favourites.
I repeat, Nothing - you listening to this? NOTHING beats a fresh reload of windows. But not the one that came with your machine with all the crap that comes with it.
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Windows 7 lagging a bit - TeeCee
