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Did Windows 10 slow down with each feature update?

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Re: Did Windows 10 slow down with each feature update?

#91
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not counting BIOS time it is about 5 seconds to Windows login on my Windows with NVMe systems. It does take about 20 seconds after login for it to finish loading all of the tiny startup notification icons, but that's actually intentional by Windows so it does not overload and prevent you from launching the apps you want. After login I can click on the web browser or email and it will launch instantly for me. If you a…

The point is, why does OP need to spend money on an SSD (and create e-waste in the process) when an HDD used to be reasonably fast for the same task?

Arguably, the issue is when the HDD isn't the only computer you use. If you switch to using an SSD on, say, a laptop, boot times are super fast, you get used to that, etc.

Then you go use an HDD, and suddenly everything feels slow. The thing is, it's not actually slower than it was before, it's just slower than your most recent comparison point.

If only use an HDD, though, those boot time are just the way it is. I never actually found it to be a large difference between Windows and Linux. The difference that really bit me was startup apps on Windows, but fresh installs were plenty quick.

I think in a lot of ways it's like getting off a freeway after a while. On a regular in-city drive, the road speeds feel normal and reasonably quick (assuming no traffic). When you've just gotten off the freeway, though, you're at half the speed of what you've been driving at for the last hour or two, and it feels very slow.

Re: Did Windows 10 slow down with each feature update?

#92

I built my mom a moderate Windows PC for her accounting work a few years ago. Pretty standard Intel build, no graphics card cause it's not like she needs that. And for the most part it works fine, until every few months it'll slow down to an unusably slow crawl and I'll have to hop into task manager, see what rogue Windows service is bugging out this time, Google it, and find some forum post somewhere telling me what…

MSCompatTelRunner.exe

I've killed as much telemetry as I can, but every time my PC loses a core or two to a random background service, it's that piece of shit.

No matter how much you purge it, it comes back. Removing execution permissions seems to work best, because Windows still realises that the file is there, but eventually it'll have its ACLs restored and the shitshow starts again.

Re: Did Windows 10 slow down with each feature update?

#93
post #5

Anyone finally willing to admit that w10 is unusable on Hard Drives while Linux and W7 work fine on them?

People must have very different performance requirements than me. I've run 10 on nothing but HDD for years now with no issues. Of course, I also avoid electron apps, modify Firefox so it doesn't eat memory like an addict on a bender, and generally keep bloat off my system. But Windows, basic Multimedia programs and games all seem to run fine. It's probably not cutting edge, but I don't feel like it's dragging.

Re: Did Windows 10 slow down with each feature update?

#94
post #80
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IME windows takes more work to administrate than many Linux distros at this point.

It may require less administration but what administration you do have to do takes much longer in my experience - some Linux things are arcane, but much isn't, but when you get to things Microsoft don't really want you to play with you're on your own

For me, what makes Linux a better administration experience is the ability to backup and move configuration. In Linux it's all files. In Windows? Who knows. It's registry entries, files spread across hidden directories and god knows what.

Re: Did Windows 10 slow down with each feature update?

#95
post #5

Anyone finally willing to admit that w10 is unusable on Hard Drives while Linux and W7 work fine on them?

I won't disagree, or agree. If you are running spinning rust rather than an SSD, you are getting exactly what you chose. Just about any use case that justifies spinning rust can be solved with an external platter, thumbdrive, and/or SD card.

When I upgraded from 7 to 10 I had an SSD in my machine but was never given an option to install 10 to the SSD. It requires some contortions to get physical install media and then start over on a new install on the SSD instead of doing any kind of convenient system migration.

The "choice" I made was back in 2009 when I installed 7 to an HDD, which seems like a reasonable choice.

Re: Did Windows 10 slow down with each feature update?

#96

Some remarks: I used Hyper-V as the hypervisor of choice That is not how most end user installations are configured (aka, not as a virtual machine). 32GB fixed disk for each build. That is much much less than the typical Windows 10 hardware. the fast boot feature has been disabled for the purposes of this measurement. That is not the default and not reflective of most installations.

> That is not how most end user installations are configured (aka, not as a virtual machine).

Though not the default, Microsoft is moving more and more towards hypervisor-based security, for both kernel stuff and for browser stuff. Right now you need to enable it, but I wouldn't be surprised if Windows 11 relies on it. The leaked installer already relies on having a TPM, after all.

Out of all virtual machine technologies, Hyper-V is probably the one that will give Microsoft the best chances at being near-metal without passing through hardware. Other hypervisors shouldn't pose a problem, but they're not under Microsoft's control.

If you have the time and hardware, you should feel free to test this on actual hardware instead; I doubt the results will differ much, though.

Re: Did Windows 10 slow down with each feature update?

#97
post #5

Anyone finally willing to admit that w10 is unusable on Hard Drives while Linux and W7 work fine on them?

People must have very different performance requirements than me. I've run 10 on nothing but HDD for years now with no issues. Of course, I also avoid electron apps, modify Firefox so it doesn't eat memory like an addict on a bender, and generally keep bloat off my system. But Windows, basic Multimedia programs and games all seem to run fine. It's probably not cutting edge, but I don't feel like it's dragging.

> modify Firefox so it doesn't eat memory like an addict on a bender

Are these Windows-specific modifications, or tuning Firefox settings that might be beneficial on other platforms? (I'm not saying that I'm looking at the insane UI changes for the upcoming Safari release on the Mac and investigating other options, but I'm not not saying that.)

Re: Did Windows 10 slow down with each feature update?

#98

One time Windows got a "feature update" that made it not boot. Apparently it was an issue with Lenovo motherboards that is still not fixed to this day (afaik). In any case, that was the kick in the pants I needed to switch to Linux. Everything has gone swimmingly since!

Just wait, one day you will have an update to linux and suddenly your whole system wont boot. This doesn't happen often, I've only had it happen 2 or 3 times in 10 years. It is good practice to have a restore thumbdrive around ready to go just in case.

Re: Did Windows 10 slow down with each feature update?

#99
post #24

I can't remember the last time I used Windows search because it's worse than useless - there have been multiple occasions in the past where it can't even find a file in the current folder right in front of my eyes. Nowadays I just use Everything which I think is one of the best piece of software ever.

I also like how it can make a machine unusable for like an hour after an update while it rebuilds the indexes. I have some laptops where it will take upwards of 45 minutes to log in after a patch. Windows 10 really hates slow spinning HDDs, and these are machines with plenty of memory (8GB) to avoid paging.
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