It's getting slower and slower by the day...

[pcs365.10]

Hi atonement,

As a first step you try uninstalling unwanted programs and also stopping unnessary startup programs
· Disk cleanup
Start – Programs – Accessories – system tools – disk clean


· Error Checking
Right click on drive – properties – tools tab – Error checking

· Virtual Memory
Note: Please backup registry before doing this.
Run – Regedit- HKEY_Local_MACHINE- system – currentcontrolset – control- session manager – click on Memory management - Right click on Clearpagefileat shutdown file - Modify value to "1"


· Advance system settings
Run – sysdm.cpl – advance tab
Try Stop Error reporting option error reporting tab
Decrease visual performance thru performance option .
Disable Automatic restart option thru startup and
recover option.

Regards
Chris

Please reply at your convenience.

[atonement]

Originally Posted by Sope

Personally I would :-

Clean junk files (CCleaner)
Scan for malware (using more than one security app)
Uninstall any unnecessary software
Disable any unnecessary start ups (Codestuff Starter)
Defragment
Optimize registry (NTREGOPT)
Defrag pagefile (Pagedefrag)

If no improvement, format and reinstall.

The first four suggestions I do frequently, CCleaner being the most frequent. The last two are brilliant suggestions thank you very much!
I had been looking for a registry optimiser but I was a bit worried about messing up my laptop.

[atonement]

Originally Posted by pcs365.10

Hi atonement,

As a first step you try uninstalling unwanted programs and also stopping unnessary startup programs
· Disk cleanup
Start – Programs – Accessories – system tools – disk clean

· Error Checking
Right click on drive – properties – tools tab – Error checking

· Virtual Memory
Note: Please backup registry before doing this.
Run – Regedit- HKEY_Local_MACHINE- system – currentcontrolset – control- session manager – click on Memory management - Right click on Clearpagefileat shutdown file - Modify value to "1"

· Advance system settings
Run – sysdm.cpl – advance tab
Try Stop Error reporting option error reporting tab
Decrease visual performance thru performance option .
Disable Automatic restart option thru startup and
recover option.

Regards
Chris

Please reply at your convenience.

Thanks Chris I will let you know if there are any improvements.

[Opus]

Originally Posted by pcs365.10

Run – Regedit- HKEY_Local_MACHINE- system – currentcontrolset – control- session manager – click on Memory management - Right click on Clearpagefileat shutdown file - Modify value to "1"

I do not understand this recommendation. Clearing the page file is a security measure and not a performance or stability measure. The setting causes Windows to overwrite the contents of the pagefile during shutdown thus slowing the process noticably. It does not defrag the pagefile, otherwise we would not need PageDefrag, and it does not delete the pagefile for re-creation on boot-up, which might or might not result in a continguous file.

Kind regards,
Russ

[Opus]

Originally Posted by kendall

If you've gone 6 years without a re-format and re-installation of Windows consider yourself VERY lucky. No amount of tweaking, defragging, registry cleaning, etc. can make an impact on system speed like a reformat and re-installation. I strongly encourage you to do so; just plan well ahead and plan on taking a day off work.

Your statement about the impact on system speed is both true and irrelevant. Few users need to squeeze that much blood from the turnip, so to speak. They just need to deal with transient performance degradation that can easily be dealt with by "tweaking, defragging, registry cleaning, etc."

As a leading economist has it, "There are no solutions, only trade-offs." (Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics) The trade-off here is to gain a modest and transient improvement in system performance--over more usual system maintenance methods--at the expense of a great deal of time and effort. Moreover, the cost of the acquisition of the knowledge to do this effenciently is much greater than the average user could make pay off. As the same famous economist says, "Knowledge is not free." (Sowell, Knowledge and Decisions)

I strongly discourage average users from doing routine O/S reinstallation because it is not a useful trade-off for them. Please see this post of mine on this topic.

Kind regards,
Opus

[kendall.a]

I strongly discourage average users from doing routine O/S reinstallation because it is not a useful trade-off for them.

This is a forum and is certainly a great place for discussion and even disagreement. You mention "average user" in your statement. You also mention "routine". First of all, I do not consider most of the people who come here and spend a fair amount of time here to be "average users". Secondly, I'm not sure what you mean by "routine O/S reinstallation". The earlier poster had mentioned that they had gone 6 years without a reinstall. I certainly don't consider a reinstall of an O/S after 6 years "routine".

We can certainly agree to disagree, but reinstalling an O/S after 6 years is not a bad idea at all. However, an even better idea is to make image backups so that you never do have to do a complete reinstall. For example, I just reformatted my HD (that had XP on it) and installed Windows 7 (64-bit). After completing all the available windows updates, I did a complete image backup. Theoretically, I will never had to do a complete reinstall of Windows 7 again; I can just use my image backup. After installing my "keeper" programs and documents (from my external HD); I did another image backup.

For those who do not have image backups (but do backup their documents, pictures, etc.), a O/S reinstall after 6 years is a very viable solution (and a good idea, in my opinion) if they are having issues with their computer.

[wdhpr]

Opus

I do not understand this recommendation. Clearing the page file is a security measure and not a performance or stability measure. The setting causes Windows to overwrite the contents of the pagefile during shutdown thus slowing the process noticeably. It does not defrag the pagefile, otherwise we would not need PageDefrag, and it does not delete the pagefile for re-creation on boot-up, which might or might not result in a continuous file.

With this said.
I have deleted my page file to start a new page file from scratch. First I will create a restore point. I just do this when ever I attempt a major tweak. Anway. I go to system properties - advanced - performance settings - advanced at lower right click change and then click on no pagefile. I then delete my page file and reboot. I then go back through the for-mentioned process and then click on system manage. this will create a new page file after which I will optimize about once a week.

I have done this twice in 5 years when experiencing very long boot times. I only do this when I have exhausted all other options. It so far has not broke my system. It has however much improved boot times.

Comments are welcome

Cheers
Wdhpr

[Sope]

Originally Posted by atonement

I had been looking for a registry optimiser but I was a bit worried about messing up my laptop.

Personally I have found NTREGOPT to be extremely safe and reliable to use. It comes bundled with ERUNT which can be used to make a backup of your registry beforehand.

I usually set PageDefrag to run on next startup just prior to running NTREGOPT which requires a restart to effect it's changes. Job done.

Originally Posted by wdhpr

I have deleted my page file to start a new page file from scratch.
......................
I have done this twice in 5 years when experiencing very long boot times. I only do this when I have exhausted all other options. It so far has not broke my system. It has however much improved boot times.

Comments are welcome

Cheers
Wdhpr

Interesting, but personally I don't understand how creating a new pagefile will significantly improve boot time, unless it is severely fragmented, in which case PageDefrag should do the job (along with defragging your registry hives at the same time).

[wdhpr]

Interesting, but personally I don't understand how creating a new pagefile will significantly improve boot time, unless it is severely fragmented, in which case PageDefrag should do the job (along with defragging your registry hives at the same time).

Just to be clear I should of included that I am using winxp sp3.
I too use ERUNT. Great tool and has been around for a long time. The tweaking guide is also worth the read.
As I said I recreated my pagefile after I exhausted other options first. Which included defragging the pagefile. After reading a few articles on the subject. I found that shut downs such as those done by power loss can corrupt the pagefile. Indeed the rare times I did recreate my pagefile It seemed to correct boot times after all other efforts failed.

Cheers
Wdhpr

[Sope]

Originally Posted by wdhpr

As I said I recreated my pagefile after I exhausted other options first. Which included defragging the pagefile. After reading a few articles on the subject. I found that shut downs such as those done by power loss can corrupt the pagefile. Indeed the rare times I did recreate my pagefile It seemed to correct boot times after all other efforts failed.

Thanks for clarifying this.

Useful info, cheers!