Windows 7 Rots Just Like All Other Windows
Ever get that not-so-fresh feeling?
Managing a computer is like keeping your house organized. You always accumulate more stuff, and once in a while you have to do a massive clean (some do this during the first half of the year and call it spring cleaning).
Keeping a well-running PC is much the same, by being mindful of what you install, uninstall and reinstall. The only difference is that if your house was like Windows – especially a very messy and unkempt one – you'd have to bulldoze or dynamite the whole lot to get things clean again.
Unfortunately, it seems that Windows 7 won't be doing much to change the phenomenon of "Windows rot." According to findings by LA-based iolo technologies, makers of System Mechanic PC tune-up software, Windows 7 is also susceptible to aging through use.
"Windows 7 slows down over time (ages) just like Vista, with boot times increasing more 330 percent over the course of two years of regular use," iolo technologies shared with Tom's Hardware.
Thankfully, it seems that Windows 7 might age more gracefully than Windows Vista, as the newer OS seems to be able to keep its legs in better condition even after months of usage.
In a comparison of three- and six-month systems, iolo technologies found that Windows 7 outperformed Windows Vista in the area of boot times.
iolo technologies will share more of its findings next week, hopefully with information on its simulation of systems estimated at two years of regular use. Stay tuned!
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Win XP is the best OS microsoft have ever produced so far !!
I have been running Windows 7 for over 4 months, with over 160Gb of programs and games, with nearly 1TB of music/videos and docs. I have seen no slow down or ‘rot’ at all. The same machine ground to a halt under Vista. I always regretted upgrading to Vista from XP, but now I have moved to Windows 7 my faith in Microsoft has been fully restored. It all makes me wonder where these negative Windows 7 headlines keep coming from as there seems to be loads all of a sudden - anyone else working on an OS, due to be released soon, that could do with some bad Windows 7 press, Google???
XP was terrible!
Use Windows 7 Toolkit, that should keep the "rot" in check a little longer.
Anyone noticed that the moment, there are 2 current Tomshardware news articals bagging M$ new windows 7?
Let me re-phrase that.
On the eve of wins7 release, one of the largest internet tech news reels is sporting two potentialy damaging articals contridicting all the fantastic press news M$ has "managed to feed us" since early beta version of windows 7.
Ull then notice, in the COMMENTS on the 1st artical "Study: Vista Startup Time is Faster Than Win 7" there are 2 comments CALLING BS on these claims, one making the bold statement that WHO WOULD BENIFIT from this kind of press release?
None other than google, who will be releaseing there OWN OS very soon.
Who posted these two VERY WELL WRITTEN comments, geared towards NOT TAKING THE ARTICAL SERIOUCLY and CALLING BS TO THE ARTICAL?
USERID's ben green and Mark Watt
These comments are these two users first ever comments on Tomshardware.
I beleive both users were created by M$'s secret online propergander protrol, who do there there best to call BS on any bad windows 7 press release by osing as causal comment posters on the most influential internet tech news sites.
The other current artical daming Windows 7 is "Windows 7 Rots Just Like All Other Windows"
ONCE AGAIN potentialy devistating press news for M$'s new OS, yes?
But then who steps up to the plate to CALL BS ON THE ARTICAL in an almost poetical speach claiming that he has had infact amazing results in windows 7?
bengreen1980
Does this USERID seem somewhat similar to the USERID which, mataphoricaly speaking, WAS ONE OF M$'S NIGHTS IN SHINING ARMOURS in the first artical?
hmm
"bengreen1980" and "ben green"
Hmm
somewhat similar hey? Check it out yourselves....
3rd guy with a poetical speach condeming the artical? mark Watt.
All users have only ever posted the 1 comment each.
I beleive all 3 users were created by a M$ press team and the comments written by M$'s propigander machine in response to this damaging news about Windows 7 Boot and Decay time ON THE EVE OF ITS LAUNCH, WHICH were infact released by GOOGLE through a third party software company who claim t have done these tests, probably paid off through somekind of bribe deal with google.
You guys must be time travelers since RTM was released 3 months ago yet you have used the full OS for 4 months, 6 months, and 2 years.
Don't need to analyse why start-up times increase with longer usage. It's all down to disk fragmentation and a crappy install/un-install process.
If Windows had a properly standardised install/un-install procedure with automatic registry cleaning, and proper auto defrag (and Page Defrag) included and swtiched on as standard, a lot of that pain would go away. Then we just need to figure out how to get rid of all the mallware, spyware and other viruses and it will be fine.
davekozy: easy - they all use macs and the fancy time machine
))
Seriously though - I agree - 3/4 months is tops you could have used "7" - so wtf guys?
{...}It would be pretty easy to see how fragmented the disk was after this amount of time. Unless it is very fragmented that wouldn't be the issue. It is also possible to check what's going on registry-wise and scan for malware.
The time it takes a 100Mb/s disk transfer to fill 12 Gigabytes of RAM is cold hard science.
While I agree that you shouldn't trust the marketing crap from PC tuning companies, it's my experience that the average user doesn't know or understand about defragging their disk, much less their system files and that DOES slow down their PCs over time. This has been the case since Windows 95 and I don't see it getting much better.
True, the bandwidth of the interface between your HDD and motherboard and the bus speed of your ram does allow you to calculate the time it would take to fill 12 Gigabytes of Ram, but that isn't a real world test. All HDDs run at different speeds and not the speed of the bus, file fragmentation DOES make a difference to HDD seek time (unless you're one of those rich kid SSD users), and Windows doesn't work by just filling up Ram. It will swap out to disk as soon as it can and (again) your average user doesn't switch off or optimise their Windows swap settings. It's a totally different story for power users and enthusiasts.
If M$ enforced a proper installation procedure in Windows and cleaned up properly after un-install, then those tuning companies would all be out of business. Standing by my original post.
A couple of observations after using windows for ages...
1. disable startup items - most of them are not needed
2. make sure you don't run services you will never use
3. always uninstall crap that you don't use
4. defrag your drive every now and then
5. use NTFS
6. make sure you boot partition is the first one on your HDD - it's faster in that area
7. try packing some of the components of the OS using UPX or similar packer.
8. use virtualization for testing out new software - this way you can avoid actually running an antivirus which always cripple your PC (protect yourself using firewall or perhaps a separate server that scans the stuff on the fly)
9. Backup your complete working OS to an image and always make sure you restore it every 6 months or so.
10. optimize windows registry
11. buy more RAM
12. buy SSD
You may laugh now... but I had manage to optimize W98se on P233MHz to boot up in 13 seconds... Actually a question for the day:
what's your bootup time? (give OS version, HDD, CPU, RAM specs and time when you last reinstalled windows). I won't give you mine - as I use Linux...