How crap is Windows update?

[James Cutting]

Hi Baz, if you search in W10 for 'defrag' the option should come up and you can view when they were last defragged, and I think you can amend the settings to schedule their automatic optimisation. So maybe, if it is slow, it could be down to that.

[baz1]

Hi James,thanks for the tip i'll look into that.

[James Cutting]

Welcome

[Mike]

Hi all, is anyone else experiencing extremely slow performance with Windows 10 since the latest update at the end of last week? Even starting-up my laptop takes ages since then, it takes about 15 seconds just to open the Notepad, 3 or 4 minutes to open Photo Gallery or my email client, moving from one tab on the browser is slow too - in fact opening anything takes a stupid amount of time.

[Pen Pusher]

I had the update and then a few days later an update to the update, presumably fixing the problem, and now I don't have a slow running puter.

Brian

[Mike]

Thanks Brian, I got the update last Friday and then a smaller 2nd one on Sunday which seemed to make it worse.

[Tally-ho]

@Mike
It may well not be the Windows side of things. I think you will find an overall slow down of internet speed (download and upload speed) in suburban and residential areas due to tens-of-thousands working from home during this Covid-19 pandemic. Most home based modems are not geared for high demand and voluminous capacities, which in turn puts pressure on local area network capacities, slowing down overall connectivity. The more rural your location, the more this slowdown may affect you.

[baz1]

just opened Administrative tools, and a whole host of things in there that wasn't there before all this stuff no wonder W10 running slow the problem is half the things we may never use and if you delete them you don't know the effect it and other issues it may have on other things?

[Mike]

I was thinking that so many people working at home could be the cause but that wouldn't affect the time my laptop takes to boot-up though, my download speed is currently 8.8 Mbps and upload is 2.2 which pretty carp considering I'm on Sky's 'Superfast' fibre-optic service.

I use this for testing broadband speed :- http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk/speedtester/

[Tally-ho]

@Mike
Using the link you gave my readings are:- Download 112.1 and Upload 8.8 using Virgin.

[Mike]

Blimey, that's a huge difference!

That still doesn't explain why it takes so long for me to open so many 'built-in' apps though, even Task Manager takes an eternity.

[baz1]

i have just done a couple of tests i'm on virgin media 100Mbps. first speed test by Ookla Download 37.87 Upload 8.43 second test Download 34.6 Upload 4.3 after test finished (Driver Reviver ) popped up and said I need a driver update??? ignored that. second test as per Mikes link, Download 46.5 Upload 4.3. any thoughts on this Driver notification guys

[James Cutting]

Your internet speeds won't affect the general laptop/operating system (Windows) performance.

Most likely 'bloatware' installed which isn't necessary - like that "Driver Reviver" you mention baz. Would say it's a piece of 3rd party software that may have installed itself when you installed another piece of software (does happen a lot).

One thing you can check is what starts itself automatically when the laptop boots up. Open task manager, select the startup tab, then on here, you can see everything that starts when the laptop does and see what impact it is having. You can disable unnecessary stuff in here, i.e. Spotify, you just have to manually open it.

Also, after big windows updates, run a 'disk cleanup' to remove the residual update files - these do have a big effect!

Any other questions, be happy to help.

[Mike]

I've spent most of the afternoon doing a defrag, re-booted and still just as bad. Then did a disk clean-up and ticked the top box which contained 7.85 GB of old Windows update files (I'd never noticed that one before) and included the others that are ticked anyway, re-booted and hey presto - everything back to normal and just as fast as when the laptop was new only 2 years ago.
Every built-in app opens straight away and all is good again.

Thanks JC, have just seen your post.

[James Cutting]

Welcome Mike yeah it's hidden, and I've seen that well over 30GB before

Glad it's running smoothly again

[Mike]

Any other questions, be happy to help.

OK, thanks.

[baz1]

yes James you may be right on that one about driver reviver I cant understand why Mike can do a defrag on W10 as my version does it automatically and also drives are optimised automatically as well my previous versions of windows I have always been able to defrag manually, and to Mike windows update always leaves crap behind and slows things down so always do a disc clean up, also type in Msconfig and view whats in there and some tips should pop up.
anymore thoughts welcome guys

[jeallen01]

FWIW, these should help:
- if you still have an "Old Style" HDD, get an SSD, clone the HDD to the SSD (Macrium Reflect Free works very well) and then replace the HDD with the SSD (lot's of info on the net on how to do that). The only m/c here that has not been updated with an SSD runs like a real slug when compared with those which have been.
- uninstall all the "c*ap" that comes with W10 (IObit Uninstaller - the free version - works well) - e.g. all the X-Box stuff if you don't have an X-Box, and there's a hell of a lot more that you will probably don't need!
- Do a regular manual check for possible updates when you have finished working on your machine and then keep it ON to let the update process "get on with it", but then take an occasional look to see if you need to tell it to Reboot to install the new stuff

[welshandy]

My 13 year old's Laptop was also running slow, my eldest Son suggested going into setting's & doing a "Refresh". Laptop now working a lot faster.

[Mike]

I'm not sure what a 'Refresh' is in a PC/laptop, do you mean a defrag & disk clean-up?