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Cause of computer slowdown

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There are many causes of computer slowdown that I have heard of. One person has mentioned the number of icons on the desktop of XP to be a factor in slowdown. Has this been the case for anyone?

Any opinions?

Topic

Clarifications

In reply to Cause of computer slowdown

Clarifications

I havent seen the # of icons

In reply to Cause of computer slowdown

being a problem and would think it suspect. However, running apps would be a big issue. If someone installed lots of startup apps and had icons on the desktop for them as well, this could be a real problem.

?

In reply to I havent seen the # of icons

If there icons of the apps that startup on the desktop, slowdown results? Why would that happen?

a bit more clarity

In reply to ?

If an app is set to startup on boot, then it will slow the system down. If the user also adds an icon onto the desktop, then lots of them can fill the desktop.
Just having icons on the desktop should not slow the system down. They are shortcuts and not being run. If they are running because they are in the startup folder, or in the startup environment, this would be why a slowdown happens.

Yes

In reply to a bit more clarity

What you mentioned is what my thinking is also. After all, the shortcuts are just that, shortcuts to programs.

At the same time, if there is a great amount of RAM, the number of startup programs would not slow down as much. But of course, the less startup programs, the faster the bootup.

The RAM ~large or small~ doesn’t come in to it …

In reply to Yes

EACH startup program has to start, one at a time.

Then ALL those programs will be competing for CPU clock cycles, leaving less cycles for the User’s next program.

A great amount of RAM won’t prevent that.

You also have to look at how Windows is made

In reply to Yes

It uses a lot of different Registers to hold things and if you fill up these or at least one of these registers that can have adverse impact on the system.

From memory the Desktop Icons are stored in the 16 Bit Registry which has limited capacity so if there are a lot of Icons on the desktop it could adversely affect the way that Windows works.

But as you where only asking about Computer Slowdown here RAM isn’t an issue as the CPU Clock Cycles are what is being used so if you exceed the Speed of the CPU in operations per second the system has to run slower as it tries to catch up and process the information. The Windows GUI is the single biggest CPU chewing part of the OS so the more that you have stuffed onto the Desktop the more that needs redrawing.

This used to be an issue when XP was first released with the Old Slow Hardware that was available then but it hasn’t been much of an issue since the CPU’s got faster than what XP could push at them.

Col

Thanks

In reply to ?

Thanks for all of the responses. Someone here mentioned the number of icons on the desktop as contributing to slowdown. Which I was skeptical of.

Not me.

In reply to Cause of computer slowdown

The number of icons on your desktop would VERY little effect on your system performance. The only time it would is when you log on or off. If you have a ton of them or if they are actual files and not shortcuts your profile will take time to load. Once it’s loaded the scren is static.

I would look more to services\applications that are running. Possible spyware or virus. Misconfigured swap file. Hard drive that is starting to go. These are far more likely to be a culprit than the number of icons on a computer.

Hm

In reply to Not me.

Would # of icons have been a factor in Win 3.1? The person who mentioned it is of that era I think.

I respectfully disagree with no slowdown @ startup

In reply to Hm

Though I could just be an old fart. 🙂
Work with an older system that has a screen full of Icons and (non)-startup applications on the desktop. Then bury most of those in a folder location other than the desktop.
You will see an amazing difference in speed (especially if you use a system with a 500MHz cpu and 256MB ram). It is only a slight slow down with todays mid range machines.

What if you run startup scripts asynchronously?

In reply to Cause of computer slowdown

I’m running XP MCE and XP Pro (2 computers), and both have TweakUI installed. With TweakUI, one can enable launching of startup scripts asynchronously:

About > Policy > Run Group Policy Editor > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Scripts > Run startup scripts asynchronously [enable]

XP MCE is fully loaded in 40 seconds. The two most important factors in fast booting and dazzling performance are:

1) kill antivirus software
2) disable all unnecessary services

See the June’05 TR article by Scott Lowe:

http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tr/downloads/home/windows_xp_services_that_can_be_disabled.pdf

It helps to have 2GB of RAM and a 3.2GHz processor, but the two interventions listed above have proven the most effective.

I don’t know if running startup scripts asynchronously will make a difference, but it’s an idea to toss out to y’all who know much more about this stuff than I.

Rick/Portland, OR

IMHO asynchronous startups = NICAM stereo …

In reply to What if you run startup scripts asynchronously?

When television sets first appeared with NICAM ‘stereo’ (at least in the UK) the sales figures shot through the roof.

Of course, NICAM was a con: Near Instantaneously Companded Audio Multiplex.

All that NICAM did was what we would now consider to be very clever, but single channel, streaming. Each ‘other bit’ of sound signal was sent to alternating channels, then squirted out of the respective speaker.

It was only due to the inadequacies of the human ear that NICAM was possible at all. If our hearing was akin to that of the animal kingdom, we would have detected the monophonic oscillating staccato of a single channel sound.

Indeed, when households across the UK were populated with NICAM television sets there were multitudinous reports of users (who were also cat or dog owners) experiencing unnatural uncommon animal behaviour.

An asynchronous startup capability is about as much use as the [u]’hype'[/u] in HyperThreading.

…just my [i]humble[/i] opinion though. 😉

Your analogy is compelling

In reply to IMHO asynchronous startups = NICAM stereo …

Thanks, Old Mycroft. One of these days you need to write a book and publish all your pearls.

Rick/Portland, OR

hello

In reply to Cause of computer slowdown

To speedup your PC, you need clean your registry.
cleaning up the Windows registry is usually the most effective solution, because the majority of computer problems are related to the registry.
http://www.make-pc-faster.com/

I have seen this, on a Win2000 box

In reply to Cause of computer slowdown

The guy asked me to come speed up his computer, I made no promises but figured I’d investigate it.

First thing I noticed is it took 10 minutes to show his desktop.

Second thing I noticed was his desktop was a huge pornographic scene/

Third thing I noticed, he created folders and blank text documents on his desktop to block the naughty parts of the picture, so his kids wouldn’t see them.

I deleted the 80 icons on his desktop and immediatly his speed was multiplied by 10, everything became instant. But he quickly recreated those icons to hide the naughty parts again. I had suggested that he just change his desktop picture when kids are around, or open up the image in paint and erase the naughty parts.

This was a company computer visible to all their customers. The screen actually faced the front door and was the first thing customers saw.

[Author]

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