Over time, Windows runs slowly. Period. How can I speed it up?

FoxSay · Jul 7, 2015

So no matter what I do, after a period of time my computer begins to run slower and slower, especially after installing more programs. If I install less reputable programs, the effectsemerge more quickly, but it still occurs with only reputable programs like Adobe Photoshop, League of Legends, and Microsoft programs. I've tried:

■ Registry cleaners like CC Cleaner; ended up messing up my computer
■ Managing processes; also created issues (admittedly, I don't have advanced knowledge of processes or registries)
■ Editing and stopping most startup programs
■ Reinstalling Windows

Of these, reinstalling Windows from a fresh boot worked. Running system restore actually seems to work as well when I did it once, but the restore was actually a pleasant side effect to another issue I was troubleshooting (the computer was also running slowly on the date to which it restored). Currently, I've just settled for imaging my computer just after a fresh reinstall or a fresh reinstall and loading the programs I always want and restoring from an image whenever the computer and slowly. I've noticed some data still remains when I restore, and with the last image restore the computer still runs slower than it used to, so I'm going to DBAN and then restore from the image to eliminate any residual data.

How do I just make my computer run efficiently without reimaging it and going through all this hassle? It runs fine when I first install it. Currently I'm dual-booted with Windows 7 on a Mid-2010, 17" MacBook Pro. It runs much better than my previous PC, but the same issues occur to a lesser degree. Any help is sincerely appreciated.

PsyKhiqZero · Jul 7, 2015

If your running a large HDD try partitioning a section for windows. this should keep the data on the fastest parts of the HDD. Also have you tried defragmenting you disk? If your using a SSD have you tried to manually TRIM the drive?

FoxSay · Jul 7, 2015

PsyKhiqZero :

I'm using an SSD, approximately 500 GB total, 242 GB on the partition for Windows. I don't think defragmenting will do anything for SSD. What is trimming and SSD?

Honestly, I think it's things that get added over time somehow, because it happens with every Windows system I've ever had.

callofDEEP · Jul 7, 2015

nope.. it doesnt.. my frnd has a 5-6 yr old pc.. for daily tasks ..man it screams .. all he got is a e7400 and 9400gt and 4gb ram..he installed windows 8.1.. boots up in about 12-14 sec.. but the way he maintains his pc is good... try these..
dont let you hdd get over 50%
keep a daily check in programs and features .. uninstall anything that u dont use
decrease startup programs in task manager to as low as possible..
check ram cpu hdd usage when u think your machine slows down
defragment your hdd once in a month.
dont insist on third party cleaners.. they mess more than they clean
and many more optimisation

JackNaylorPE · Jul 7, 2015

1. Good planning / disk setup works well here. Using a HD or SSD

a) Create a 128 GB partition for the OS ..... this puts it on the fastest part of the drive. The outer edge is twice as fast as the inner edge. It also stops the drive from having to search all over the drive for files from the 477 Windows Updates.

b) Create a 2nd partition for the page and temp files and adjust your system settings to move them there.. Again, this keeps them at the outer edge of the drive ... but more importantly keeps the page file from becoming hopelessly fragmented all over the drive.

c) Create Programs, Gaming, Data and Backup or whatever partitions according to your needs.

d) Image the OS partition to a backup location which you can easily restore.

2. Never use any "My documents, My pictures or that crap on your C:\Drive..... store those on the data partition.

3. Occasionally use windows disk cleaner (including the system files thingie) andr Ccleaners disk cleanup (Steven Gould's Cleanup is an alternate and sound can be entertaining as you "flush" all the old crap. Don't forget old Windows Update uninstall files.

4. Manually search for *.tmp and *.dmp files and delete them when you do the above.

5. Every once and a while do a search on *.* and rank the files by size ..... google the names of the biggest files and make sure you understand what they are if considering deleting. WinDirStat utility comes in handy.

6. Make sure to move your e-mail and browser user related info off the C:\drive .... compressed, I have 17 Gb of emails alone.

With an SSD the same applies except there is no fastest part / slowest part so ignore those tips related to "placing files". But again "no" with regard to "My Anything" folders.

I used to wipe and reinstall the OS on my wife's and all my kids machines every year between Xmas and NY's. They install / uninstall stuff day to day and the uninstalls leave a lot of crap behind.

FoxSay · Jul 7, 2015

JackNaylorPE :

Is this an HDD-only solution? If it's for SSD as well, how does that make it faster?

JackNaylorPE :

Does it still faster on an SSD? How?

JackNaylorPE :

I re-image fairly regularly to a previous point. Whenever I try to use a registry cleaner or something similar, I seem to delete something or change a setting I really shouldn't have. Maybe I need to learn how to work with this area?

JackNaylorPE · Jul 7, 2015

1. As indicated above, anything regarding positioning at outer edge / inner edge is irrelevant on SSD. I find this to be the ideal setup:

256 GB SSD for OS / Applications
2 TD SSHD for Games
2 TB SSHD for Data

The SSD keeps all frequently used files on the SSD portion of the drive and automatically dumps off files once they stop being used frequently and adding those that are.

2. You get those "My" files off the OS partition to allow for more room on the SSD or on the OS partition for stuff that matters. Do you really need those "cute cat" pictures on the SSD or fast part of the drive ? SSD space is at a premium.... no room to fit everything in that small place.... it's all about using the SSD (or the SSD portion of an SSHD) for the stuff that benefits most from it.

Registry cleaners should be used judiciously.... don't just run it and delete 487 entries. Know exactly what each one is before deleting.... and back up the registry before doing so. For example, if you had an AMD card and now have nVidia, it's ok to delete all AMD video driver references.

Skyl3r · Jul 7, 2015

I feel like I'm stating the obvious and I apologize if I am, but here's my thoughts:

1. You're using an SSD, so I wouldn't expect that to be the cause of your slow down. Even a fairly well maintained HDD shouldn't cause too many performance issues in every day use of your PC (assuming every day use doesn't require excessive reading and writing.)

2. The programs you mentioned installing all create services on your system that launch at startup. These processes can be seen by launching the msconfig.exe tool (Run -> MSCONFIG) then look at Startup tab. Look for software you don't really care about or want running on startup, disable it. The fewer things your computer has to do at startup, the faster it can boot.

It may be worth checking Services (Run -> Services.msc or Task Manager -> Services tab -> Services.) Look again for anything you don't want running regularly and set it's startup to manual.

I do this on a regular basis and especially after installing anything like Steam that enjoys running in the background so that I can make sure I'm not being bogged down by a bunch of services I don't even want running.

JackNaylorPE · Jul 7, 2015

An SSD can still be bogged down by bloat, duplications and outdated / excessive registry entries, ....tho agreed much less a problem than on HD.

CCleaner also has a nice startup manager as does Mike Lin's startup control panel. Cc also has a decent disk analyzer and duplicate file finder.

Skyl3r · Jul 7, 2015

JackNaylorPE :

Most of the times, I hear CCleaner being recommended for cleaning registry; which I personally would discourage. It's a very debated topic, but it seems most serious analysts agree that it doesn't do much good and most certainly can do way more harm than good.
That being said, CCleaner is an excellent tool and I would definitely recommend it for all the other utilities it packs as far as junk cleanup and computer optimization go.

JackNaylorPE · Jul 7, 2015

Like Windows Update, I would never let WU install any hardware drivers.... it depends on how you use it....it bis useful for letting you know that perhaps a driver is outdated, telling it no, dno't install and then going and getting the manufacturer's web site.

Analyzing your registry and allowing it to make wholesale deletions of 467 registry entries is nutz. Using it as a tool for further investigation to determine exactly which ones should be deleted is a very useful tool.

For example.....

-Run 1 checkbox at a time
-If i see any registry entry for a program I have since uninstalled, bye bye
-Unused file extensions.... It found 13, I am using 7 of them (bak, old, tmp...) and so what if it knows to do with them if and when they show up ... they can stay
-ActiveX/COM issues.... unless program is gone or I recognize something ... they can stay until I figure out what it is
-Type Libraries - same
-Fonts - never an issue
-HelpFiles - If i see anything I may reinstall the "on disk" help files....sux using browser base dhelp when no internet access
-Installer files - these are usually for programs since uninstalled.... I just had about 80 of em, 77% for Silverlight.... bye bye
-Obsolete software - have 8 invalid firewall rules... will email firewall TS
-Run at startup - had one since uninstalled utility n- bye bye
-MUI cache - 3 firewall entries related to above - will ask TS

Skyl3r · Jul 8, 2015

Like Windows Update, I would never let WU install any hardware drivers.... it depends on how you use it....it bis useful for letting you know that perhaps a driver is outdated, telling it no, dno't install and then going and getting the manufacturer's web site.

I find that the value of using Windows Update to receive driver updates is realized in a company environment where consistency and stability are priorities over performance. In general the drivers that windows will put out are stable releases that are not necessarily very new. So for an individual consumer, especially one worried about performance, receiving driver updates from Windows is most of the time not the best choice.

Analyzing your registry and allowing it to make wholesale deletions of 467 registry entries is nutz. Using it as a tool for further investigation to determine exactly which ones should be deleted is a very useful tool.

I see what you mean with the registry and I can appreciate that you exercise caution and contact support. The thing is, unless you are actually receiving an error (will be logged in Event Viewer) then there is little to no benefit to be gained by removing unused entries in registry. A registry entry is very small. Imagine having a text document with 500,000+ lines. Deleting 1000 or even 10,000 lines that your computer was going to skip over anyhow isn't gonna provide much more than a very small increase in readability from a user standpoint and no noticeable improvement in performance. If there's a specific problem in registry, for instance a common one is broken file associations, than there could be some major gains by fixing the registry.
To clean the registry as part of housekeeping though will not gain you anything.

jsmithepa · Jul 8, 2015

Yeah, the more crap you put on the more crud Windows has to sort through. Legitimate programs *shouldn't* slow down your machine but no software is bug-free or play 100% nice with that you have.

Ready for a time-tried management method (no dealing with registry required)?

Build your system by keeping several generations of Known-to-be-Good OS images. The idea is, whatever happens, you can go back, quickly, 15 minutes, back to your last image point and you are guaranteed to be back where you were, working just right, no dealing with registry or any of that mind-numbing, time-consuming stuff. OK, you *may* have to re-install a few things, but that's a lot better than guessing what the problem(s) may be.

I keep OS Images of, basic sequence:

(1)Clean Windows Install.
(2)Add drivers from Mobo Vendor + MS updates.
(3)Personal Apps that I know I always use: FFox, Office, Adobe Reader, Photoshop etc.
(4)Latest Image (this get re-created as I add more Apps)
(5)My current running OS

So between 4-5 is where am adding stuff, and all of a sudden BSOD, drags blah-blah, I just pull out my Image#4 and go back when things were peachy. Am not even try to trouble it. For this to work, command all updates to be MANUAL, do not let the vendor/MS to update stuff from you. You want to control when this happens so you can, at the sign of trouble, UNDO by restoring to the previous Good Image.

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Over time, Windows runs slowly. Period. How can I speed it up?

FoxSay

Reputable

PsyKhiqZero

Splendid

FoxSay

Reputable

callofDEEP

Reputable

JackNaylorPE

Titan

FoxSay

Reputable

JackNaylorPE

Titan

Skyl3r

Honorable

JackNaylorPE

Titan

Skyl3r

Honorable

JackNaylorPE

Titan

Skyl3r

Honorable

jsmithepa

Polypheme

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