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Does Windows rot over time?

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What causes Windows to die over time?

  • Could be a network/NIC related problem.

    Votes: 50 5.5%

  • Failure due to other third party software.

    Votes: 392 42.9%

  • Happens after failed overclocking attempt(s).

    Votes: 118 12.9%

  • Failure due to messing with the page file and/or aggressive registry/other tweaks.

    Votes: 209 22.9%

  • No it does not. Windows is the best OS in the history of mankind.

    Votes: 64 7.0%

  • Yay for free food!

    Votes: 174 19.1%

  • Windows is simply poorly designed and is not suitably designed for long-term consistent uptime and l

    Votes: 484 53.0%
  • Total voters
    913
Super Nade

Super Nade

† SU(3) Moderator  †
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Joined
Aug 30, 2004
Location
Santa Barbara, CA
Folks,

I'm getting sick and tired of having to reinstall Crapdows every 4 months or so. I'm quite sure many of you have faced this problem as well. The object of this poll is to identify causes which contribute to Winblows rotting over time.

Please post a brief note explaining your choice.

In my case, I believe Winblows, being connected to the net, is the cause of my problems. I cannot think of anything else. My system is rock solid stable as I survived a complete stage #1 Gentoo 2.6.12-r10 install !
On my benching HDD, there is no networking option and that has stayed relatively stable compared with my primary XP install.

One of the key assumptions I am making is that, we are quite intelligent, so, spyware/virii do not contribute to the issue at hand :D
 
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I assert that any operating system is susceptible to corrupton and problems over time. Windows, however, seems to be more susceptible.

Between dependency/DLL hell, shoddy filesystem management, the intrinsically poor method of storing configuration in the Registry, and susceptibility to outside intrusion aka spyware, Windows just gets beaten over the head and tends to, well, rot.

Edited to add: Voted for options 1-4 and 6.
 
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I voted for a couple since i dont think it is causes by just one thing. But it can be assumed that yes, its a fact windows does rot over time...
 
The question is not IF winblows rots over time. That is true without question. I was hoping to find out if anything in partiular accelerates the process. I think I made a mistake in the heading of my post. It should read "What causes Winblows to rot over time" ?
 
2-4-6..

sometimes i do stupid things...like go tho my registery when i got nothing to do.. its amazing how many programs i removed are still got junk in there.

i do use tools to clean it.. but it misses alot of stuff
 
1,2,3,4,6. I've had experiance with all those. Windoze does suck majorly, but it's still the most compatible OS made so I live with it.
 
damarble said:
1,2,3,4,6. I've had experiance with all those. Windoze does suck majorly, but it's still the most compatible OS made so I live with it.
Click to expand...
Compatible with commonplace applications, yes, compatible with all types of hardware, no, PowerPC/Sparc support was junked at NT 4. Afraid that the title of "most compatible" goes to Linux. Just my $.02.

Although it is, most certainly, one of the most widely-developed-for OSes.
 
I voted 2-3&4.
I think everything effects Windows. The temp goes up outside and windows sneezes, the temp goes down it gets a cold, install a new driver and it gets pneumonia! I think that Windows is basically suicidal and over time does itself in. That said, it is rock stable next to it's earlier incarnations.
 
it seems that usually when i need to reinstall, it is because of tons of remaines from 3rd party apps that didnt uninstall all the way. it just slows it down. i am very paranoid about it though. i wish uninstall would really uninstall all of it, including the registry. other then that, i seriously have had very very few problems with windows xp. now, windows 95, 98, ME... those were complete junk OS'es.. i guess microsoft got smart with xp.. IMHO :D
 
EvilCloudStrife , i cant help it.. kinda off topic.. but how did u do your sign.. thats kinda cool .. how it shades color..

i could make a php program to do that..but i am way to lazy

but yes..i am a large gammer windows is good for that..
 
by itself windows well not rot over time i had a computer running windows me never overclocked never connected to internet on 24/7 for 1yr never had any problems at all dident have to fix anything or reboot ever
 
BluntStatic said:
by itself windows well not rot over time i had a computer running windows me never overclocked never connected to internet on 24/7 for 1yr never had any problems at all dident have to fix anything or reboot ever
Click to expand...


I agree with this for the most part - though MS updates and anti-virus should be run to keep the OS up to date an away from unnecessary risks.



Windows is FINE by itself, maybe sitting there spooling print jobs and moving files. It's actually USING the OS that causes degradation, installing/uninstalling, bad internet-browsing habits, poorly written software interacting with the OS, and certainly pushing an Overclock too far can cause problems. As can registry tweaks but I didn't select that as I don't believe its a MAIN cause of windows 'rot' (most who go poking through the registry know what they are doing or at least make a backup I would hope).
 
Super Nade said:
The question is not IF winblows rots over time. That is true without question. I was hoping to find out if anything in partiular accelerates the process. I think I made a mistake in the heading of my post. It should read "What causes Winblows to rot over time" ?
Click to expand...

That is really surprising. Windows seems fine after even a few years if you don't let spyware get to it. We have had an athlon xp with windows xp since 2001 and it has not "rotted" or whatever at all. And that is with me and my brother treating it poorly, but keeping spyware off. Second longest is 2 years with another athlon xp. No problems or massive slowdowns at all. The older athlon xp is not overclocked at all and the newer one is all within spec except the cpu. That is with non-motherboard hardware changes with them every once in a while.

I know everyone always bashes microsoft. I don't think they would make an OS that goes bad like that. I have a friend who runs windows 95 on a 95Mhz Pentium. Yeah it feels a little slow because the hardware is a lot slower than today, but it still connects to the internet and is useful for typing if someone else is on the other computer. That is 10 years or so of working fine compared to your 4 months. The only time I ever reinstall is if I change the motherboard (and not even sometimes then) or if windows gets eaten alive by a virus or spyware (only did once). It must be something you are doing.
 
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Captain Newbie said:
Compatible with commonplace applications
Click to expand...
Yeah, I was meaning software-wise. There are WAY more apps for Windoze than any other OS. But that's changing.


Afraid that the title of "most compatible" goes to Linux. Just my $.02.
Click to expand...

Doesnt Linux still balk at ATI video cards? Or has that been resolved? Linux evolves so fast it's hard to keep up.

BTW, I'm not a fanboi of either Windoze or Linux, I've used both and both have pros and cons.
 
Albigger said:
Windows is FINE by itself, maybe sitting there spooling print jobs and moving files. It's actually USING the OS that causes degradation, installing/uninstalling, bad internet-browsing habits, poorly written software interacting with the OS, and certainly pushing an Overclock too far can cause problems. As can registry tweaks but I didn't select that as I don't believe its a MAIN cause of windows 'rot' (most who go poking through the registry know what they are doing or at least make a backup I would hope).
Click to expand...
^^

I'm not very demanding of Windows (I don't uber OC, I don't install/uninstall loads of stuff... I pretty much use it just for the internet and games [which don't get uninstalled ;)]) and it dosen't seem to rot very much at all.

The last time I reinstalled Windows was in January (after a two years of being installed) because I was running low on diskspace and figured a format would be a good way to clear the crud, as well as speed up the OS a bit. After the format, the crud was definatly gone, but I can't say that it was any faster or more stable. MS has come quite a ways from 9x :)

JigPu
 
Doesnt Linux still balk at ATI video cards? Or has that been resolved? Linux evolves so fast it's hard to keep up.

BTW, I'm not a fanboi of either Windoze or Linux, I've used both and both have pros and cons.
Click to expand...
If there was an implication made there I resent it, if not, disregard. I simply see a better, more robust design in linux.

*nix still has troubles with ATI cards, because ATI driver support isn't forthcoming from the ATI guys. The day is coming when the community either gets stable linux drivers or chucks ATI cards; the former is more likely than the latter.

In terms of compatibility, I mean to say that it runs on x86, PowerPC, SPARC, Motorola 68000, IA-64, ... and on and on.

I apologize for the threadjack; this isn't about *nix, it's about Windows. Sorry.
 
I voted for the last item.I look at Windows like it is a work in progress.To me it seems to get faster over time instead of the opposite.With XP it seems it's biggest problem is fragmentation and use of disk space.It seems to randomly throw files around on the disk,much like 98 did.The larger the partition the more it spreads them around.I have found this to be true only with the C: partition however, as all other partitions will allmost never fragment and remain as fast as when they are installed.For this reason I keep my windows partition small with programs and documents on a seperate disk/partition.Win 2000 seemed much more stable to me.
I use Adaware,spybot and Norton to keep out most junk and after awhile I use cc cleaner to get rid of all the extra crud.I also turn off the Widows backup for all drives and keep a ghost backup for all partitions.This does seem to lengthen the time between installs.
I beleive that the registry is the main reason an install goes bad.Just like people,if it lives long enough it will develop cancer and in most cases it is terminal.
 
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