Re: Windows benchmarking
  By: Mike Powell to All on Thu Mar 02 2017 06:46 pm

MP> I have recently been asked by a friend/co-worker if I would not mind
MP> looking at their machine sometime in the near future. I would like to but,
MP> while I don't have to come across as a know-it-all, I would like to not
MP> look stupid. I used to be pretty confident about stuff like this but, after
MP> using linux for so long, I have really lost touch with what can go wrong
MP> with Windows. 

Things I've run into with my system in no particular order:

1. Run Disk Cleanup from Windows or ccleaner, I prefer the latter. Have it run
a registry check as well as disk cleaner. Having a temp file filled with
thousands of files can slow Windows down as it will need to access that
directory.

2. Windows defrag doesn't do as good of a job as third party defrags. Try
running mydefrag or another reputable defragger - after the disk cleanup.

3. Run HD Tune on the system and check to see that the HD system is running
well. It'll analagous to running timing tests with hdparm. My SATA mirror gives
me a speed of around 90-100 mb/sec max. If it's running on ATA drives and seems
way slow, like single or low digits, it may be that the storage controller in
Device Manager is set to PIO mode instead of DMA. There's a setting in device
manager for that.

4. Check out device manager and see if any hardware didn't install correctly.

5. Check under My Computer to see if any mapped drives no longer exist. That
can slow down file listings while the system looks for a non-existent drive and
times out.

6. Check the memory usage by hitting ctrl-alt-delete and selecting task
manager. If the system is running out of memory, then use the MSConfig program
to disable start up at boot for any programs you don't need. They'll start just
fine when you need them.

Those are the kind of things I've run into with my own system, hope this helps
point you in the right direction.
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