Quote: Original post by FableFox
I could be wrong, but from what I've heard, registry is the main culprit.

so yeah, after a while, it require formatting.

Yes. I've used every version of Windows since 9x days and every version has failed due to a corrupt registry at some point.
Good thing is that every version of Windows it is a little more robust and trimmed down. I've had Windows 7 installed since RTM and it hasn't failed yet. Vista only lasted a bit over a year.
Microsoft is trying to wean developers from relying on it so maybe it will eventually go away :)
Also, with Win7 Microsoft trimmed a lot of the fat that was in Vista like .net framework files, unnecessary services and programs,etc so it does seem to do better.
Disk fragmentation is still a major problem though and if you don't keep an eye on it or use some 3rd party defragger you'll definitely notice a slowdown over time.

A Windows machine is like a classic car, it needs love and attention (I liken Linux to an old motorcycle that you never ride, but take apart repeatedly and service and put back together ;).

Through general use the computer will get clogged up (registry, temp folders, etc) and this needs to be cleaned up. All those random extra programs that you install over the years, which you never use anymore, need to be cleaned out.

A good defrag helps speed things up as well. And using the msconfig tool will let you keep on top of what software/services start up when you turn the computer on.

Obviously ensuring your Anti-Virus is up-to-date will help avoid any pesky viruses (virii?) from slowing things down even more.

Basically, to keep your machine running in tip-top form you should service it every 6-9 months (maybe more often depending on usage).

Also, there is mechanical wear and tear on harddrives that will cause them to slow down. RAM is also subject to a lifetime as constant read/writes will eventually take it's toll, so swapping out the RAM every couple of years or so will help things.

Just a few things I do to keep working efficiently.

Conceptualizing the problem as a form of entropy guarantees inevitable failure...

Quote: Original post by szecs
I have a similar stuff with Firefox. It started a few days ago: There's a small halt/lag every few seconds (10-20). It can be noticed everywhere, mouse/keyboard events, video playing.

It's a Firefox issue. Annoying. Nobody knows exact cause, but everything I've tried doesn't work.

Fully restarting Firefox helps.

I tend to use Chrome if viewing lots of videos.

Quote: A good defrag helps speed things up as well.

I've adopted a different strategy.

First - no pagefile, set to 0. Ignore Windows complaining. With 64-bit machines that is a non-issue.
Secondly - partitions. I use C for Windows installation, and nothing more. D are applications - that would normally be 'Program Files'. No messing with registry and CLSIDs, just specify D:\ for installation.
X: - users/* and all other caches, such as Mozilla, Google Maps.
The other partitions I create as needed, usually they are either 30 or 60GB. Games, for example, each goes on its own partition, mounted via NTFS into single drive.

For development, E (most of the stuff), J (Java), S (scratch, builds and such). V: is VMs. And so on...

On top of that, R: is a 512MB-1Gig Ramdrive for /tmp and /temp. With 8GB RAM, I don't think I ever saw it go over 4GB used by applications.


While there is a slight performance loss due to so many partitions and since drives tend to behave worse at end of platter (or inside, I forgot), there is effectively no fragmentation. Each partition has characteristic usage (a game has few huge files, Java dev has millions upon millions of <2kb files, applications are mid-sized, but almost completely read-only, VMs are bunch of 500MB+ files, scratch is a big /tmp drive, which I can reformat at any time rather than defragment, ....). Kinda like type-based memory pools in programming.

For anything fishy, such as perhaps old win95/98 apps, dubious software, or perhaps just simple throwaway stuff - virtual machine, if anything goes wrong, just reimage it.


I've been using this for years now and haven't had to reformat or reinstall anything. No degradation, no creep of any kind. Also no system restore, readyboost and similar clutter.


Other, purely work-centric machines, I use similar, but if possible make it a point for everything to be in repository. As soon as clutter starts appearing, wipe the disk (not C:), checkout everything again.

I'm incredibly glad that laptops and notebooks started coming with multi-partition defaults. There was simply nothing worse than being stuck with single 1TB partition.

Quote: Original post by AndyEsser
A Windows machine is like a classic car, it needs love and attention (I liken Linux to an old motorcycle that you never ride, but take apart repeatedly and service and put back together ;).

Like the Linux analogy. I find it pretty accurate lol.

In all fairness, I could also say that Windows is like the car you change every two years for the new model... :)

Quote:
...reinstalling XP...

It bloats!

Well, nothing new. Nothing a fresh-reinstall-and-a-week-of-ballache can cure. My machine feels arthritic now. Time for a reboot.

If you do a fresh start, I'd seriously consider Windows 7 as well. You know, keep up with times...

Quote: Original post by Antheuscut for length

oooooo. I think I'll do that next time I reformat.

Quote: Original post by Antheus
With 64-bit machines that is a non-issue.

I think you might want to make that one a little more clear. That should read "With 64-bit machines with plenty of ram that is a non-issue."

I have seen a few "64-bit" installs of OSs running with 2 and 3 GB of ram, and I've already managed to use up 6 GB on my home rig after finally getting around to upgrading it last week.

Running a Windows machine with no Pagefile is guaranteed to fail eventually. Once you start running more and more memory intensive applications it'll start to cause a problem, as soon as you hit the physical memory maximum your machine will either BSOD, become unresponsive, or just altogether fail.

Quote: Original post by AndyEsser
Running a Windows machine with no Pagefile is guaranteed to fail eventually. Once you start running more and more memory intensive applications it'll start to cause a problem, as soon as you hit the physical memory maximum your machine will either BSOD, become unresponsive, or just altogether fail.

his point was that with 64 bit windows and enough ram you should never reach the maximum unless you're doing something ridiculous.