Does Windows rot over time?

[athlonhead]

I have two computers with XP on them. I haven't had to reinstall either one of them.
One is my first build computer XP2600 Mobil with a A7N8X three years + on the install.
The other is the one in my sig. almost two years on the install.

Both run 24/7. Both are stable and fast. Both are overclocked. Knock on wood I guess.

System restore has saved me a couple of times when a download caused problems though.

 

[eatdirt40]

Its the crap you install on windows that kills it. You cant blame the paper, only the art you draw on it.

 

[Enablingwolf]

Its the crap you install on windows that kills it. You cant blame the paper, only the art you draw on it.

Why allow things to be installed then?

Even if nothing is installed anything past stock. It will still needs to be cared for and fed. Unless you never defrag or do cleaning house so to speak. There is plenty of reputable apps that do not fully remove [hidden] drivers after you ask it to be gone.

So technically, yes Windows by itself will rot over time. You just can't expect it to last forever without taking care of it. It is the filesystem itself that allows it to go bonkers over time. NTFS is a good kernel filesystem, but has some nasty flaws.

 

[Rich'[ard]]

my Vista installation tends to degrade to due viruses. it's always virus related. so i have to format/install every 6 months or so. but recently, the reason has been to change OS (from XP to Vista) and to install OSs on different drives.

 

[I♥GFX]

Not sure how this is Windows' fault, everything is highly dependent on the user...

The whole "rotting" is the user downloading media and installing software, which of course takes heavy tolls on your hard-drive by slowing it down & fragmenting Windows files while at it, which also contributes to the "rotting".

Sure, there's probably hundreds of more reasons as to why Windows slows down over time, but I don't see how OS X or Linux is any more protected from a user being a user...

 

[chadrh]

Windows keeps improving but I still have issues with calling it an enterprise OS. There are still plenty of shops that schedule regular reboots of their Windows servers to keep them running properly. As an old UNIX guy that boggles my mind. I've personally seen plenty of *NIX boxes with uptimes over 3-4 years while I've never, ever seen a Windows box go more than 3-4 months.

It'll get there someday, maybe not in my lifetime.

 

[RoadWarrior]

It takes me a couple or three days of web browsing on my Turion laptop before XP seems to get memory too fragmented to recover and I have to reboot unless I want to start waiting 2-3 mins for every page to render while it thrashes the page file, restarting or changing browsers does nothing.

 

[jayfella]

I voted third party software.

Think about it like this, if you never installed anything except windows update, nothing would ever go wrong. But once you start installing, uninstalling, etc.. things get left behind, broken references stagnate, etc... and slowly but surely she gets fatter and thicker and sloooower and eventually she gives up in a BSOD of awesomeness.

 

[RoadWarrior]

if you never installed anything except windows update, nothing would ever go wrong.

If I'd never had an update that broke stuff, I'd concede your point.

 

[Elluzion]

hmm lets see, i have reformatted my laptop about 30 or 40 times so far. xp just slows down so much for much

 

[Ach3r0n]

Something I never thought to do until recently ... install all that software I trial and ditch in VMWare so the repeated install/uninstall doesn't make a disaster out of my OS.

btw I haven't reinstalled Windows since June 2007. It doesn't run perfectly but I can run for a week at a time before I need a reboot.

 

[werdz]

I have been running Windows 7 for like 3 days + without a reboot. I think they got it right this time. Windows like any other software is bound to have bugs etc.. we dont live in a perfect world unfortunately..

 

[Perseus]

I have been running Windows 7 for like 3 days + without a reboot. I think they got it right this time.

Did you use Vista at all, before you installed 7 and were completely amazed by it? I've been running the same VU64 install for about a year, through two major hardware installs and I haven't had any problems, or needed to reinstall. Also, and this is just me, but I wouldn't base a statement like the one qouted above on how long I could go without HAVING to reboot. How does 7 run when you're actually USING it, can you do anything you want without it tripping over itself and/or slowing down?

No, wait, 7 is a beta and you've only been using it for 3-days, right? So you wouldn't really know if MS "got it right" or not, much less whether Vista is as crash-happy as you seem to "think."

 

[johnz]

My Vista64 install is 1.5 years old, and it runs as good as the day I installed it. I'm currently at 12 days of up time, and the last time I restarted was due to a update. Other than a brief time of flaky ram, and one other with a failing UPS, Vista's been a rock for me. I have no doubt that I could run it for a couple of years without restarting, and it would be just as smooth as it is today.

 

[werdz]

I guess since I upgraded from the crappy vista that I have been running since Sept 07, to windows 7 which is definitely much faster. At least for me it has been a smooth ride, I have had the beta way longer than 3 days.

 

[Perseus]

Oh, now it's "way longer" than 3-days?

 

[Methal]

My tech computer is vista. Its a Core 2 duo 6600 with 2 gigs of ram. I absolutely must reinstall every 6 months or so or the thing runs like a huge steaming pile of crap. Boot times compared at 6 months, and at the fresh install time are grand canyon wide in difference. 2 minutes + after its been up for 6 months. 20 seconds up at a fresh install.

My second tech computer is Linux. I haven't had to reinstall or turn it off for any reason other than adding a hard drive to clone or scan for viruses and other windows crap problems in months. It installs its updates without needing a restart.

Windows registry is to blame.

 

[QuietIce]

IMO - It's not the Registry per se that's the problem. It's all the garbage that piles up in the registry from program updates/upgrades and poor uninstall routines ...

 

[madhatter256]

IMO - It's not the Registry per se that's the problem. It's all the garbage that piles up in the registry from program updates/upgrades and poor uninstall routines ...

I use a program called XP manager. It defrags registry, although it's risky, doing so (after deleting the junk registry, which it does, and very good at it) does cause windows to boot up faster. I've used it on many PCs at work, it works great, I even purchased a few licenses for myself.

 

[Neuromancer]

I am still very much impressed with Vista.

AFter years of using XP and dealing with it is flakiness it is nice to see a system that gets faster over time. Yes boot time takes long the more applications I install and use, but general desktop browsing it lickity split quick.

I usually reformat XP about once a month due to hardware changes, and poor performance.

Windows 7 RC client runs very well. RTM however does not at least in 2D benchmarks it was 10% slower for me, than RC. Going to have to run more tests, but for now, will keep Vista for 24/7 setup and run XP for benching.