Dealing with the "Windows Decay"

[Dominato3r]

I built my computer about a year ago, and it's now starting to show signs of hiccuping, mainly at the login screen. Windows still boots in about about 15seconds or so, but the Welcome screen after the login page stays there for a good 10seconds. Even after I log in, there's about a good minute where it's just thinking and not doing anything. Chrome, skype, etc wont load.

I've gone through MS config and changed the start-ups, boot processes, etc. but it's still the same. I've ran a disk cleanup and that does nothing to help.

Any ideas what I should do? This is a fairly common problem I've seen with most Windows PC's but I don't want to have it happen this time.

I'm running a i5 2400, 8GB of ram, and a 1tb 7200rpm drive. A fairly standard setup.

 

[VirtualLarry]

defrag? Get an SSD?

 

[corkyg]

When was your last Windows Update? There is one every month - maybe it is looking for them?

 

[nickbits]

i used to have that problem on xp. are you using xp or 7?

does the comp belong to a domain? my guess it is network related. drive mappings/shares maybe.

 

[Dominato3r]

defrag? Get an SSD?

Last defrag was yesterday. I plan on getting an SSD but it was booting fairly quickly without it anyway.

When was your last Windows Update? There is one every month - maybe it is looking for them?

Doesn't seem like it. It last checked for an update this morning, and found nothing. There were two pending updates but they were for the bing toolbar

i used to have that problem on xp. are you using xp or 7?

does the comp belong to a domain? my guess it is network related. drive mappings/shares maybe.

I'm on 7. I don't log into a domain, this is my personal computer with local accounts

 

[billyb0b]

do a fresh install on win 7... that should solve it. i tend to do a fresh install bout every 1.5-2 years. did it for a decade with XP and have already done it once with win 7.

 

[Dominato3r]

do a fresh install on win 7... that should solve it. i tend to do a fresh install bout every 1.5-2 years. did it for a decade with XP and have already done it once with win 7.

Yea I think I might do that, but that's a terrible way of fixing this.

 

[ninaholic37]

do a fresh install on win 7... that should solve it. i tend to do a fresh install bout every 1.5-2 years. did it for a decade with XP and have already done it once with win 7.

Yup. I've done fresh installs on 3 or 4 of my old "decaying" Windows laptops as well (mostly Windows XP), and it always fixed the problem too.

 

[JamesV]

Have you checked your system logs?

I bet you'll find something useful in there.

Right click on Computer -> Manage -> Event Viewer (on left) -> Windows logs -> check each category and review events occuring during startup.

Otherwise, do a logical clean of your system : review services and disable unused, clean registry, defrag, etc.

 

[ky54]

The first thing I do on a computer that's slowing down is install Spybot S+D. I'm not going to comment on whether it is efficient at catching spyware but it does have a very good program for controlling the start up processes which is much better than MSCONFIG in my opinion. There's a lot of programs you can block with MSCONFIG but install right back there again the next time you restart your computer. With S+D it doesn't come back. Just be careful with it because you can damage Windows pretty easily with it.

 

[supercheapit]

do a fresh install on win 7... that should solve it. i tend to do a fresh install bout every 1.5-2 years. did it for a decade with XP and have already done it once with win 7.

+1. I do a fresh install every 12 months. Over time Windows builds up crap which only a clean install can usually get rid of.

 

[MTDEW]

I do a fresh install with all my programs and updates with no video drivers and make an image of it with Acronis, so its as easy as restoring an image if i want to have a "clean" pc.
Only takes 6min to restore my "clean image" with my SSD.

To keep my "clean image" up-to-date, every now and then, i make an image of my pc as it is now and call it "NOW".
Then restore my "clean image" and do all the Microshaft updates.
And remake the "clean image".
Then restore my "NOW" image and move on.
Takes about 20min all together to do the "routine" and its been well worth it for troubleshooting purposes alone, you would not believe how much that "clean image" comes in handy.

 

[Nebor]

I really don't see this being an issue with Windows 7. I got Windows 7 as soon as it came out on all 3 of my personal computers and I haven't experienced any degradation of performance. Try getting an SSD?

 

[pcgeek11]

Myth. A properly maintained OS doesn't decay. My wife's computer Windows XP has been running for about 8 years with no problems whatsoever. My Windows 7 has been running since the release with no issues. I have never re-installed anything.