My PC is running infuriatingly slowly and I’ve tried everything I know to try. I deleted files and programs I don’t use, I de-fragged, I scanned for viruses (I have McAffee), all to no avail.
Yes, I read the sticky thread, and per the instructions there, I ran Ad-Aware and Spybot Search&Destroy, with no perceptible results. The link for the next step if symptoms persist, CWShredder, does not work. The other options don’t sound like something a computerphobe should try.
Is it just time for a new computer? It’s a few years old.
I was running Spybot Search & Destroy and my computer was also running slow. I think it always is running in the background. I removed it and my computer immediately came back up to speed. Ad-Aware doesn’t seem to be any problem with speed.
Was this a sudden development, or a gradual decline in performance? If it was gradual, what kinds of programs have you installed since you can remember your computer performing better (new OS or virus protection perhaps)? Also, have you tried a registry cleaner? Finally what are your system specs - CPU, GPU, RAM type and amount?
If it wasn’t gradual, but rather a sudden loss of performance, a new (or oudated) driver might be to blame or perhaps low performance settings in the power options, or an overheating component like the CPU, throttling itself down or a harddrive that’s about to give up the ghost. You may want to run a disk check on the drive and maybe clean out the inside of your computer, paying close attention to the CPu and GPU fans/heatsinks.
In there will be a list of all the things your PC automatically starts when it boots up.
Uncheck boxes next to items you do not want. Note some things are important such as leaving your Antivirus software running and perhaps some drivers for various equipment. By and large though anything there can be shut down. Things like iTunes is notorious for putting stuff in there then putting it back every time it runs regardless of what you want. Other things will stay off if you tell them not to run.
Some entries may be cryptic. Sometimes you can get a sense of what they are by looking at the path (to the right of the listing) that it starts from. Do not worry, you will not mess up your machine doing any of this.
Restart your computer. You will probably get a message that some programs were stopped from running. This is normal. Just Click “OK” and move on. If it seems something stopped running that you want running just do the MSCONFIG thing again and check the appropriate box.
Note that SpyBot and Search& Destroy are not terribly good. Because they are near ubiquitous the bad guys have taken to specifically programming around them. They are better than nothing certainly and catch the less sophisticated stuff but you can still easily have spyware running. I hate to say it but a bought program (be careful…some purchased anti-Spyware programs are actually spyware themselves) tends to do a better job.
Adaware and Spybot Search and Destroy don’t seem to be very effective these days, although the tools available in the latter are invaluable on occasion. I have never seen a performance hit from the Tea-Timer though.
McAffee is known to slow systems down without actually detecting very much.
Try running CCleaner and see if that helps.
Also check (use Spybot S&D tools) to see what startup programs you can do without.
Are you running out of discspace? If you are this will impact on your swapfile and severely slow things down. Depending on the age and specs of your machine a few tweaks would probably bring it back into line. A bit more memory, up to a point and possibly an additional hard drive, both easy to do.
I would also advocate trying the free version of Avast antivirus and SuperAntiSpyware
What’s the specification of your PC? How full is the HDD? Do you often see the HDD activity LED lit? When you say you deleted files, did you empty the Recycle Bin afterwards?
Bring up Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc. Click the Performance tab. At the bottom, look at the Physical Memory box. What does it say? Now click the Processes tab. If you’re runnign Vista, click ‘Show processes from all users’. Click the CPU column to sort the processes by CPU usage and see if anything interesting is there using lots of CPU.
Sometimes all a computer needs is a kick in the ass by means of system restore (or backup all needed files and re-install the operating system from scratch), do a format and custom install so you can uncheck the stuff you know you don’t need.
I redo my personal computer from scratch every three months or so. I am a tech so it isnt a big deal. Backup all your data and format the hdd, install the OS and Bobs your uncle. makes a huge difference in speed. It will come back to the same way it was when you bought it. The problem is of course is that the way you use it now isnt the same as when you bought it. EG: image editing. Sometimes you just dont have enough horsepower to do what you want to to now. Thats why you want to hear a salesperson ask what you do with your computer. Needs vary wildly.
I’m a professional computer dude myself and I wholeheartedly recommend this. I don’t do it every few months (more like once a year), but it’s absolutely true that windows machines just get slower over time, and can use a nice format/reinstall. It feels like a lame cop-out coming from someone who actually claims to understand how computers really work, but the fact is, it’s an extremely complex system and cruft inexplicably builds up that slows things down (potentially-fictional example: you have so many entries in your HKLM\CLSID registry key that accesses to it get really slow, and there is no good process for cleaning this out).
I became convinced of this when I had a machine which was basically a completely vanilla XP install with almost no software installed, and after a couple of years it got very slow. I meticulously uninstalled most of the software, freed up tons of hard disk space, defragged, ran spyware and virus scans, deleted all the System Restore data, defragged again, etc, etc, etc. When I was sure this machine was as clean as I could reasonably get it, it was marginally improved, so I decided to reinstall from scratch. When the install was done, the machine was theoretically in about the same state it was in after all the cleaning, but it was like I had bought a new computer.
Nuke it from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
BTW, being in practice at this is actually a really good habit for other reasons, too: it makes you much more aware of what software you’re installing (and therefore what you know you don’t need), and it forces you to identify your personal files that you’d want to take with you. If this is a habit, you’re better prepared if you actually do end up buying a new machine (you’ll already know how to transfer your stuff), and the logical next step is to even (gasp) make backups just for the sake of making backups, so you’d then also be safe in the event that your machine just croaks.
I missed the edit window, but with respect to Windows just getting inexplicably crufty, I wanted to add that of course it’s all explainable if you dig in and identify the problem spots, but for whatever reason, Microsoft has not made this a priority. I’m sure it has to do with some research that they’ve done that shows people just chuck their machines every N years anyway, so why expend lots of effort on a rare case (and of course, the cynical view which I’m sure has at least some truth to it: Microsoft really doesn’t mind if people have a little encouragement to chuck their machines every few years). But I can say that I know senior developers on the Windows product team which acknowledge that “it just needs a good cleanin’ out occasionally.”.
It was gradual; I don’t quite remember when it started. I think the only programs I’ve installed since I got it were City of Heroes and World of Warcraft, but the machine ran fine for quite some time after that. Second Life was a more recent addition, but I deleted it (and yes, I emptied the recycle bin). The games, while not yet un-playable, give me an annoying amount of lag. But even something like switching screen names on AOL takes a ridiculously long time.
How much hard drive space do you have and what is the total size of the drive?
Also, the MSConfig utility is mirrored by the startup one in Spybot S&D. Sometimes it sees things that MSConfig misses and it is somewhat easier to fiddle around with, doesn’t demand a restart on exit etc. and will also give pointers as to what most of the programs do. It isn’t any better but is a bit more straightforward.
If you have enough spare discspace I would consider setting your swapfile manually. Windows will issue dire warnings against this but it is all bullshit, easy to back out of it if you make a mistake.
My personal feeling is anti-virus software is the major cause of system slowdowns and random problems. Everything is filtered thru these inefficient programs. Get rid of 'em.