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I am very surprised you don't do it. Rebooting machines daily, or at least every few days [2-4 tops] is critical, and every machine I have ever worked on has benefited hugely from reboots with more free memory and less CPU load.
Whereas I tend to set them up correctly and avoid apps with memory leaks. (-: In seriousness, if a system is "benefiting hugely" from reboots, it has an underlying issue which needs addressing (as you allude to). Off the top of my head I think the last time I had to set up scheduled reboots was for Citrix MetaFrame XP servers, so that would've been 10-15 years ago.
I accidentally gave the update process a proper test.
I downloaded the W10 update while working on the laptop, clicked install, plugged in the charger as the battery was down to ~40% and left it to do it's thing.
After an hour or so I noticed that I couldn't hear the fans whirring so assumed it had finished.
It appeared to be off, so I pushed the power button. Nothing. Pushed it again. Nothing, again.
I had about 10 seconds of thinking that W10 had killed my laptop before realising that I'd plugged the charger in, but not actually turned it on at the wall. It had got partway through the install process and the battery had cut out. 😯
I flicked the switch and started it up, and all credit to it, it rolled back the installation and then started again and it's working perfectly. I haven't used it too much but haven't come across any issues yet. It certainly seems quicker to boot than W7.
I hear ya Cougar, but most of these users are not pro, so the setup will be less [i]refined[/i], eh?
Oh, also,
more free memory and less CPU load.
This isn't necessarily a problem which needs to be solved. You either have enough resources or you don't; if you need a pint of water and you only have a half pint pot then you'll need to make two trips, but you're not gaining anything extra by pouring it into a litre jug.
Bad analogies aside (and handwaving virtualisation for now) there's little point in having CPU and RAM sitting there unused. A modern Windows OS (basically, everything post-XP) knows this and will actively use available memory to set up things like file caching (aka "SuperFetch") and other complicated cleverness. This isn't "taking up memory" in the strictest sense so much as just using it because it's there, it's still available even though it's in use - if free memory starts running low, the cache will get dumped in favour of more important data.
So rebooting will absolutely "free up memory" yes, at least temporarily, but critically [i]this is not a good thing.[/i] Why have memory sitting there unused? It's a waste. On a reboot, Windows will have to start all over again building up its caches and suchlike, so whilst a reboot might make it appear to be in better shape you're actually [i]harming[/i] performance in doing so.
TL;DR - Unless you're running a 13-year old OS, leave it alone. (-:
We obviously have very different ways of doing things!
The first thing I do when decluttering an old machine, certainly one running Vista is to disable SuperFetch- it's given too high a IO priority. The disk ends up jamming the drive up and meaning there's a huge disk access queue. When YOU decide YOU want to load something you end up waiting more than twice as long.
Then a rampage through msconfig/services.msc to kill a load of other wasted processes.
WRT CPU cycles, well, I mostly agree. However, if it's normally running a load of processes in the background that are flooding the CPU caches and not actually benefiting the user at that point, then canning/flushing threads can really help, hence the above.
Free RAM - yes of course RAM that is caching something useful is worth filling with the useful thing [and Linux seems better at doing this to me, I re-ripped half a DVD the other day before the drive actually span up- there was still 3GB of cached files!]....
But when the cache management floods the free RAM and you start paging - well, stick the kettle on.
But, yeah, I really think reboots should happen every few days, reboot then give it 5 mins to warm up.
Hopefully then it's ready to go [HDD access light off].
Hey, I mean, you can fill those caches up once a day, right? Might be quicker than waiting for a load of unused stuff to get flushed when you want to deviate from what the machine is thinking you want to do.
Anyway, it also sounds like we're talking about different setups though, managed deployments vs removing cruft from older machines.
The first thing I do when decluttering an old machine, certainly one running Vista is to disable Superfetch- it's given too high a IO priority.
That was a known problem in Vista. W7 onwards is much less aggressive.
Then a rampage through msconfig/services.msc to kill a load of other wasted processes.
Sure. Again, been there, and with an old machine that was underspecced from the outset you pretty much had to tweak it in order to eke out any sort of performance without needing a second mortgage. These days though it's generally more trouble than it's worth IMHO, any performance gains will be negligible unless you've got an errant service (and then, fix the app!). If I was building, say, a gaming rig then I might still bother but really, if you're having to do that then the problem isn't an excess of background services but a lack of hardware. I'd sooner stick another couple of gig in a box than frob about with Services.
if it's normally running a load of processes in the background that are flooding the CPU caches and not actually benefiting the user at that point, then canning/flushing threads can really help, hence the above.
Sure, but that should be an atypical situation. The question is [i]why[/i] that's happening, I'd argue that in that case what you really need to be doing is finding out the root cause rather than just masking the symptoms.
But when the cache management floods the free RAM and you start paging - well, stick the kettle on.
There's no way that the OS should be paging to make room for file caching. Aside from it being low priority data that gets dropped in the event of RAM starvation, caching file data to memory to increase performance and then writing it straight back out again to the same disk would be nonsensical. (If it actually does this, I'll be amazed.)
Hey, I mean, you can fill those caches up once a day, right? Might be quicker than waiting for a load of unused stuff to get flushed when you want to deviate from what the machine is thinking you want to do.
I like to think I have a reasonable handle on Windows system architecture, but even so I'd hazard that Windows itself has a far better idea of what system files it's likely to need far better than I do. I see no reason to interfere with that process.
Anyway, it also sounds like we're talking about different setups though, managed deployments vs removing cruft from older machines.
Perhaps. Older machines are a different barrel of whelks entirely, of course (hence my initial riposte about Windows 95).
I upgraded from a relatively clean 8.1. last week. Registered for upgrade mid-July, waited for it to say it was there, circa 4th August and then followed instructions. Took about an hour.
works okay now. i prefer the look and feel although closing down takes slightly longer than before it's not an issue.
uploaded via Garmin express to Garmin connect (which in turn uploads to strava and endomondo) and all still works as before.
Adobe Premiere elements v 8 is giving me gyp at the moment but it was before I upgraded (I was hoping the upgrade would resolve but it didn't).
I use this PC to remote connect into the office. The connection was always clunky on v 8.1 and always insisting I upload latest version of Java even though I had it already and only ever worked on IE even though I use chrome for everything else.
upgrade to W10 seems to have made this worse and I can't connect via IE anymore as it is insisting i don't have latest version of java installed. Will call work helpdesk and get them to walk/talk me through it.
Other than that need to play around and see if I spot any other differences.
Good thread #thumbsup
Where are these whelks?
No I don't mean read>cache>writecache to pagefile, I mean read>cache>bump something else out. Anyway....
I think we best leave this for another thread, don't want to ruin this one. I am sure you're mostly right anyway, dude. 😀
ack++
Tried to update today and got this message
[b]windows 10 We couldn't update the system reserved partition[/b]
Didn't offer any help how to resolve it 😐
I get that basically when it goes to sleep after I close the lid it won't wake up again, need to hard reboot it.Caher - Member
Updated at the weekend and the 'sleep' function no longer seems to work, which means i have to turn the PC off at night.
But rather that sleep, I've changed it in the power management to hibernate when the lid is closed instead. least it loads up quicker now and I'm back to where I left things. (tbh I think I'll leave it like this, uses less power, I find when sleeping I can leave the comp for a few days and need to restart anyhow as the battery has drained(My power settings are all set to max for audio recording))
I'm sure a proper fix will come eventually though.
I'm on a HP pavillion, seems to be a common problem on these, but not limited to it.
btw, reading through the cougar/gofarsterstripes square go! 😆 latencymon is a cracking we app for finding out whats slowing down you computer.
Bruneep have you got enough space on your c:drive? It might be that.
I'm loving the streaming Xbox one games to the PC. I've finally got my telly back in the living room from my lad :)... Its marvellous!
Bruneep I had this problem at first - I followed the steps here ([url= https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/3a6znd/we_couldnt_update_the_system_reserved_partition/ ]reddit[/url]) and this solved the problem for me.
I then failed at second attempt because I had left "secure OS boot" enabled in my PC's bios (feature in some motherboards to prevent malware attempts to tinker with the OS). Disabled that option temporarily for the win 10 install and it all ran smoothly from then.
And yes, it seems win 10 totally sucks at providing anything by way of useful information as to why something isn't working.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/08/11/windows_10_download_bricks_pcs_kb3081424/
Watch out! Bug about!
[quote=rumbledethumps ]Bruneep have you got enough space on your c:drive? It might be that.
I'm loving the streaming Xbox one games to the PC. I've finally got my telly back in the living room from my lad :)... Its marvellous!
after a bit of searching it seems to be the lack of space on the 100mb section I've tried to increase this but I've failed at my attempts
Anyone care to offer a solution
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My laptop doesn't want to upgrade. It fails the first time it tries to reboot - I just get left with the blue windows logo in the middle of the screen. Have to turn laptop off and when it reboots it recovers 8.1
Oh well, it's only a computer.
have you made the large partition smaller to allow you to make that yin bigger?bruneep - Member
rumbledethumps » Bruneep have you got enough space on your c:drive? It might be that.
I'm loving the streaming Xbox one games to the PC. I've finally got my telly back in the living room from my lad :)... Its marvellous!
after a bit of searching it seems to be the lack of space on the 100mb section I've tried to increase this but I've failed at my attemptsAnyone care to offer a solution
Tried to but it seems to be failing my IT skills
bruneep seriously try the stuff on the reddit link.
I had your exact problem. It solved it.
The 100mb partition won't resize - you need to shrink the amount of crud filling that 100mb partition.
Why keep that partition at all? Flatten the lot and let the installer worry about it.
[quote=Cougar ]Why keep that partition at all? Flatten the lot and let the installer worry about it.
how to then?
Does it not give you the option? The W7 installer does when it asks you where to install; you click Advanced IIRC and it takes you to a disk management menu.
As far as I recall the Win 10 installer (as an update) doesn't give options, it is a fully automated upgrade install.
I think you need to download and burn the ISO then install from that if you want install options - Win 8.1 did this too, which is why you need to go through the steps in the reddit link (there must be other ways of doing it too, it's just that I had this problem, found that via Google, tried it and it works).
Sorry, I was assuming that's what they were doing.
Now got it to 62Mb free space folowing the redit guide, that had some issues that were cleared up further down the posts.
atempting downloading again 🙄
I think that's where the bootloader lives?
Is it possible to install older browsers? Ie10?
Ie11 is installed as well as edge
Now running on my work laptop (Aspire S3/i5/6gb/SSD) and seems 100% fine, and noticeably wizzy.
Also running on old work desktop (Dell Pentium E/1.8/2gb) and again seems fine, and really wizzy.... 😯
to get a "proper" download of W10 to use via USB stick and fresh installation, (which I think is what cougar's thinking, try here:
[url= http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 ]http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10[/url]
and here:
[url= http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-10/media-creation-tool-install ]http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-10/media-creation-tool-install[/url]
anyone know how you get rid of the ever changing wallpaper when you awake from hibernate and before you login
it has some creepy message about "do you like this image click here..."
i discovered that windows defender sends details back to microsoft, go into the settings to turn it off (it may have done this in win8.1 to be fair)
So I found my first problem last night. Photoshop Elements 6 won't run. Comes up with some error about 'Internet Explorer 5 or later must be installed'. I assume it's because PSE6 doesn't recognise Edge.
I tried to install IE11 from the M$ website but didn't succeed. Website seems to not recognise Windows 10 as a valid OS to install on.
Ie11 come with w10 and can be used instead of edge.
I've got it running in a vm on a 2011 mbp. I'm using ie11 for siebel stuff
Go to find type Internet explorer and pin to start.
I'm using the full version not the upgrade
Photoshop Elements 6 won't run
Far as I can see, Elements 6 came out in 2007, and 14 is due next month. Whilst I'm no fan of spending money on upgrades for the sake of it, it's perhaps time to consider upgrading.
Far as I can see, Elements 6 came out in 2007, and 14 is due next month. Whilst I'm no fan of spending money on upgrades for the sake of it, it's perhaps time to consider upgrading.
Fair comment currently downloading the trial version of 13 and maybe hang on for 14 next month.
I assume it's because PSE6 doesn't recognise Edge.
W10 has IE installed - just search on 'Internet Explorer' from the start menu.
W10 has IE installed - just search on 'Internet Explorer' from the start menu.
In which case I reckon chances of getting PSE6 running on W10 are slim to none (I tried various compatibility modes last night but no joy).
Maybe splash the cash on a newer version of PSE. PSE6 has done me well and came free with the PC I am still running!
Is anyone running theirs with no additional AV?
As I understand it, w10 comes with the next iteration of MSE and should not need it (unless you undertake risky Internet activites such as dwarf goat pron and dodgy torrents etc)
Yes, and yes.
+1
Haven't used AV other than MSE for several years now.
++1
Good stuff, thanks for confirming. Will leave it as is then
DX12 lookin good for AMD users!
[quote=Freester ]Far as I can see, Elements 6 came out in 2007, and 14 is due next month. Whilst I'm no fan of spending money on upgrades for the sake of it, it's perhaps time to consider upgrading.
Fair comment currently downloading the trial version of 13 and maybe hang on for 14 next month.
You should be eligable for a free upgrade to 14 if you bought 13 within a month of 14 being released. Predicted release date for 14 is 22nd sept, so buying 13 some time after 22nd oct should be ok.
[url= https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/upgrade-policy-product-announcement.html ]https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/upgrade-policy-product-announcement.html[/url]
(note the number of [i]shoulds[/i] in that post!)
edit: although adobe have 13 [url= http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/photoshop-elements.html ]on sale[/url] till 24th August, so being a big corporate baddy they'll probably release 14 on 25th September to avoid all the people who bought it cheap being able to upgrade for free!
Can I just double check for those who've been through this:
If you do the update, that generates a W10 product key (which you can extract from the installation in some way?)
Once you've done the update you can download the full install iso?
I have a new (to me) W7 laptop here, which I'm planning on doing a complete re-install on. Was just wondering whether it was worth preparing a potential upgrade to W10 in the future - possibly after the date when you can get it for free. So I presumably want an install iso and a product key - if I do this now before re-installing (I have the icon sitting there) I can then re-install to W7 as planned and put the W10 installation media aside for another day. Can somebody give me a quick walk through of what I should do?
(the old laptop this replaced also has a valid W7 pro licence - also wondering if I can use that to install W7 on the new machine and generate myself another W10 product key)