This has been bothering me for some time now. I work on about 15 computers a month, 
on average. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Most of the time, circumstances deem 
it necessary to where the client is better off with just starting off on a clean 
slate. Heres how I do that.

First I back up all data thats important to the client. Then I use Driver Genius 
to back up all of their drivers. I run Belarc and SIW to obtain all system information, 
installed programs and their related product keys, and save that information. I nuke 
the hard drive, as opposed to just reformatting because Im a paranoid freak. Then 
I reinstall the operating system (lets say XP Home as an example), reinstall the 
drivers, and run all of the Windows updates, which here recently include Service 
Pack 3. I install AVG 8.0 and Zone Alarm.

Here lately in many incidences, (not all, but many) the people are telling me that 
their computers are running slower than before, particularly while on line. I know 
the proper way to figure this out would be to eliminate one thing at a time until 
the answer presents itself. Like perhaps reverting to IE 6, or eliminating the Phishing 
filter, or eliminating SP3, or eliminating Zone Alarm, and so forth and so on.

But before I drove myself insane, I thought I would just ask if anyone else had noticed 
this or tried to work on this problem.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated,

David 

Tip: Run a free scan for common Windows errors ad

re: Many machines slowing down lately, why? Friday, July 25, 2008 at 7:05 am Posted by Charlie (104 messages posted) Some others here have been recommending AVAST for an anti virus over AVG. The general consensus is that the version 8 is a bit bloated and can cause some slow downs. I've also noticed in the last few days, what seems to be a general slowing down of internet activity, primarily the time it takes many web pages to load. Since i'm limited to dial up, this also is very noticible and though i've not made any recent software/hardware changes i cant pin down any reason specificly on my pc, other than to suggest it could be an internet issue instead of any specific pc issue. i would suggest however, slowdown issues could be more attributed to a buildup of files in temp foulders, cache, cookies etc. I do notice however a little speed difference if i dont regularly do as mentioned, and i rely on ccleaner and i can sometimes see a before and after difference particularly if i dont run it regularly. On Friday, July 25, 2008 at 6:28 am, ApprenticeDave wrote: >This has been bothering me for some time now. I work on about 15 computers a month, >on average. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Most of the time, circumstances deem >it necessary to where the client is better off with just starting off on a clean >slate. Heres how I do that. > >First I back up all data thats important to the client. Then I use Driver Genius >to back up all of their drivers. I run Belarc and SIW to obtain all system information, >installed programs and their related product keys, and save that information. I nuke >the hard drive, as opposed to just reformatting because Im a paranoid freak. Then >I reinstall the operating system (lets say XP Home as an example), reinstall the >drivers, and run all of the Windows updates, which here recently include Service >Pack 3. I install AVG 8.0 and Zone Alarm. > >Here lately in many incidences, (not all, but many) the people are telling me that >their computers are running slower than before, particularly while on line. I know >the proper way to figure this out would be to eliminate one thing at a time until >the answer presents itself. Like perhaps reverting to IE 6, or eliminating the Phishing >filter, or eliminating SP3, or eliminating Zone Alarm, and so forth and so on. > >But before I drove myself insane, I thought I would just ask if anyone else had noticed >this or tried to work on this problem. > >Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, > >David [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Many machines slowing down lately, why? Friday, July 25, 2008 at 7:07 am Posted by Steve (23811 messages posted) You might be on the right Track, I have not seen any Slow Downs, and I do not use SP3, IE 6-7, Zone Alarm, Avg 8, or any type of phishing Filters.:) [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Many machines slowing down lately, why? Friday, July 25, 2008 at 7:48 am Posted by William (135 messages posted) You may add CCleaner to your bag of tricks to clean up cache, temp files. AVG 8 itself runs much slower than earlier versions and does use 46 Mb of RAM, but I haven't noticed it slowing down other operations. Can't offer any advice on SP3 or Zone Alarm since I do not have either installed. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Many machines slowing down lately, why? Friday, July 25, 2008 at 7:59 am Posted by Brian (630 messages posted) I'd take a hard look at Zone Alarm - the latest version is terrible. I've removed it and noticed a BIG difference. On Friday, July 25, 2008 at 6:28 am, ApprenticeDave wrote: >This has been bothering me for some time now. I work on about 15 computers a month, >on average. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Most of the time, circumstances deem >it necessary to where the client is better off with just starting off on a clean >slate. Heres how I do that. > >First I back up all data thats important to the client. Then I use Driver Genius >to back up all of their drivers. I run Belarc and SIW to obtain all system information, >installed programs and their related product keys, and save that information. I nuke >the hard drive, as opposed to just reformatting because Im a paranoid freak. Then >I reinstall the operating system (lets say XP Home as an example), reinstall the >drivers, and run all of the Windows updates, which here recently include Service >Pack 3. I install AVG 8.0 and Zone Alarm. > >Here lately in many incidences, (not all, but many) the people are telling me that >their computers are running slower than before, particularly while on line. I know >the proper way to figure this out would be to eliminate one thing at a time until >the answer presents itself. Like perhaps reverting to IE 6, or eliminating the Phishing >filter, or eliminating SP3, or eliminating Zone Alarm, and so forth and so on. > >But before I drove myself insane, I thought I would just ask if anyone else had noticed >this or tried to work on this problem. > >Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, > >David [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Many machines slowing down lately, why? Friday, July 25, 2008 at 8:35 am Posted by William (135 messages posted) Dave: One thing I fogot to mention or ask. When you set these people up on AVG, do you set it to run automatically at a specified time? If AVG is running in the background then other operations on the computer will most certainly be much slower. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Many machines slowing down lately, why? Friday, July 25, 2008 at 8:39 am Posted by dennis (1 messages posted) One other possibility - I hate to admit it, but sometimes all the clutter, caches, and generic bloat we see on a Windows platform actually serves a purpose. In this case, it sounds like many of your users are probably heavy internet browsers. As such, many of the sites they visit are probably glitzy news and social networking sites. In the first few days that they get their newly refurbished system back it has to work a lot harder, downloading all the graphical "junk" that make a modern web page look so pretty. All those background images, icons, banners, logos, headers, footers, emoticons, etc., etc., all have to be downloaded again because you thoughtfully emptied their trash. And even if your systems have great bandwidth and all the .gifs, .jpgs, and scripts may individually be small, there are a lot of them. Furthermore, many of them are probably coming from 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th-party sites and when you have that many links in a row there's bound to be a traffic jam somewhere. In short, I suspect that your users will probably stop complaining after a few days as they will have visited their favorite sites a few times and their browsers will be able to pull most of the graphics they need from the cache. If people continue to complain I suggest that you casually say something like, "Yeah, I've noticed the slowdowns myself and think it is caused by too many people surfing to non work-related sites. If I keep getting complaints I might have to track down the worst abusers and have their managers reprimand them for misuse of company time." I bet the complaints stop quickly. On Friday, July 25, 2008 at 8:35 am, William Mowbray wrote: >Dave: One thing I fogot to mention or ask. When you set these people up on AVG, do >you set it to run automatically at a specified time? If AVG is running in the background >then other operations on the computer will most certainly be much slower. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Many machines slowing down lately, why? Saturday, July 26, 2008 at 8:07 am Posted by Rich (326 messages posted) I would definitely consider 'AVAST' as your anti-virus program. I noticed the newer AVG was rather slow and bloated!! I would also get rid of Zone Alarm. I use the Firewall built into Win XP, and my router does a good job of other problems better than Zone Alarm. I also use 'CCleaner' and Wise Registry Cleaner. (Free.) Wise also has a free 'Disk Cleaner'. The only one I have tried that left NO problems.. You also might want to check your internet performance with http://www.speakeasy.org/speedtest [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Many machines slowing down lately, why? Saturday, July 26, 2008 at 8:17 am Posted by Rich (326 messages posted) OOPS..... In my previous post, the URL for the speedcheck was not '.ORG' but '.NET'... http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Many machines slowing down lately, why? Saturday, July 26, 2008 at 10:15 pm Posted by Alan Masterman (462 messages posted) I've noticed a lot of people recommending Avast for anti-virus protection, and I'm wondering, any particular reason why? It is a good program, I know, but the couple of times I've tried it, I've discarded it each time precisely because I found the performance hit unacceptable. Is this something that can vary from machine to machine? [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Many machines slowing down lately, why? Sunday, July 27, 2008 at 4:52 am Posted by Rich (326 messages posted) I find Avast as good as AVG, a small footprint, fast updates, (I keep mine set to manual), and you can adjust the resident protection to normal or high. I find 'normal' quite sufficient. I switched since AVG went to a newer version that I find bloated and slow. Avast will scan my system in approx. 5 minutes..! On Saturday, July 26, 2008 at 10:15 pm, Alan Masterman wrote: >I've noticed a lot of people recommending Avast for anti-virus protection, and I'm >wondering, any particular reason why? It is a good program, I know, but the couple >of times I've tried it, I've discarded it each time precisely because I found the >performance hit unacceptable. Is this something that can vary from machine to machine? [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Many machines slowing down lately, why? Sunday, July 27, 2008 at 5:01 am Posted by Spexx (2229 messages posted) Avast! does have a noticeable performance hit when operating in the default configuation. The "Standard Shield" is the one that seems to cause the most trouble. This module scans all executables and program libraries as they are launched, which gives a noticeable lag. If all the programs already installed on your PC are trusted, this module may be turned off without compromising security. With any anti-malware program there are bound to be performance issues from time to time, but adopting the "shields up" and "shields down" approach i.e. managing the resource as required, is the way to go. If all you want is to "set and forget" then there is a price to pay for the laziness. Cheers. Spexx. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Many machines slowing down lately, why? Sunday, July 27, 2008 at 8:03 pm Posted by ApprenticeDave (48 messages posted) I've switched from AVG 8.0 to Avast on a couple of machines since making this post and have found that they do open applications quicker now. I have one old machine that I do a lot of playing around with, just to test things out on. And with AVG it took 8 minutes to open up Quick Books, and only 4 with Avast. Keep in mind its an old machine, and under no circumstances would you want to take it seriously. But a newer machine responded well to the switch as well, just last night. On Sunday, July 27, 2008 at 5:01 am, Spexx wrote: >Avast! does have a noticeable performance hit when operating in the default configuation. >The "Standard Shield" is the one that seems to cause the most trouble. This module >scans all executables and program libraries as they are launched, which gives a noticeable >lag. If all the programs already installed on your PC are trusted, this module may >be turned off without compromising security. With any anti-malware program there >are bound to be performance issues from time to time, but adopting the "shields up" >and "shields down" approach i.e. managing the resource as required, is the way to >go. If all you want is to "set and forget" then there is a price to pay for the laziness. >Cheers. Spexx. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Many machines slowing down lately, why? Monday, July 28, 2008 at 2:08 am Posted by MartinM (7551 messages posted) Quite so. Firewalls don't need updating so you know that ZA has turned into bloatware if it has a "latest version" ! Try Comodo or Jetico now that ZA has gone down the hole that McAfee, Norton and now Avast fell into. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Many machines slowing down lately, why? Monday, July 28, 2008 at 9:37 am Posted by Spexx (2229 messages posted) I had all sorts of problems with AVG 8, particularly with the email scanner module failing for no good reason. Avast! seems 100% solid by comparison. I too use older machines for testing - performance issues are much more noticeable! Cheers. Spexx. [Reply or follow-up to this message] Tip: Use one of the [Reply or follow-up to this message] links above to add a message to this thread Search this forum Start a new thread on a different subject Report abuse of the forum Return to the Windows XP Discussion Forum