What software slows down Windows?

Filed under: Security, Windows, Office, Productivity, Microsoft

What software slows down Windows?

by Jason Clarke Sep 11th 2006

Adam over at Lifehacker points out a very interesting little study conducted by Oli at ThePCSpy.com called "What Slows Windows Down?". Although it's only one independent test, Oli went to great pains to explain his methodology and show that he gave each piece of software a fair shake on a brand-new system.

Oli used a clean installation via a VMWare virtual machine to test the performance of a number of common software suites to determine which of them has the biggest overall negative impact on Windows performance. While I'm not sure many people would be surprised that Norton's Internet Security suite topped the list (by a huge margin), the next worst thing that you could have installed on your system is 1000 or more fonts.

Personally, I love this list, and just wish that he had the time to test every piece of software that I currently use, as well as competitive software so I could find the best-performing options. But in the absence of that "wishful thinking" list, I'll take this one. Thanks Oli!

Tags: Windows performance, Windows slow-down, windows software, WindowsPerformance, WindowsSlow-down, WindowsSoftware

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

oneshot1 said 5:24PM on 9-11-2006

I always had a hunch taht it was Norton, i do not use norton, i use "kaspersky:anti hacker/antivirus" in partnership with "System Mechanic Professional 6" which is a great tool that can be found here:

http://www.iolo.com/

steve said 5:26PM on 9-11-2006

nice list

I uninstalled Norton almost 2 years ago as it was so bad it was obvious - ridiculous for a major brand. Long live Zone Alarm.

Miranda said 5:40PM on 9-11-2006

I also found that Norton will slow down,lock-up, and crash a system. I have had real good luck with Adaware.

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Gerard Harrison said 7:02PM on 9-11-2006

My experience with Norton is the same. But as much as it slows down the system, the conflicts it causes, in my experience, are even worse. If the kids ran a networked video game with Norton running, the system had to be rebooted before it ran right. If (heaven help me) they booted up a game with Outlook and Norton running, Norton locked up Outlook when downloading mail and I'd wind up uninstalling and reinstalling Norton. I replaced it with the CA EZ Armor anti-virus and anti-spyware produts and I've had no problems since.

snife said 7:13PM on 9-11-2006

Most norton software is worse than the stuff it is 'protecting' you from. I don't use any anti-virus, I have found common sense to be a suitable replacement and, fingers crossed, no ill effects in 4 years since I stopped using it.

Gardiner Westbound said 7:16PM on 9-11-2006

Norton is bloatware!!!!!

ClamWin AV, Spybot S&D, and the trusty Windows firewall are effective, efficient, economical substitutes.

Clamwin does not automatically scan downloaded files. They must be scanned manually, no big deal.

Peter said 7:19PM on 9-11-2006

He only measured boot times, not overall performance degradation. Personally, I'd be more interested in how an app affects performance while I'm doing daily tasks, than how much it delays the boot. I only boot the system once a day, so who cares if it takes a little longer? But if it slows my overall performance all day long, that is a real problem. I wouldn't necessarily assume that an increased boot time for an app corresponds to an equal overall performance loss from that app.

RP said 4:26AM on 9-12-2006

Right -- this is just about boot-up speed. It's interesting, but it's just 1-2 minutes of your day/week.

Marc W said 10:22AM on 9-12-2006

Boot time's especially important on laptops. I'm amazed Norton doesn't have laptop-specific settings.

duke hafa said 9:49PM on 9-12-2006

not a big surprise here, norton pumps more than a thousand registry entrys into the system, windows starts up it recoginize every little settings it deem necessary. Norton protects system good alright, but not that effectively compareing to others. so with the same reason everyone else had, I ditched nav years ago, long live the mcafee!

Mustang said 11:29PM on 9-14-2006

BTW I'm still running an older version of AIM for the same reason. The new version of AIM (triton?) was horrible. It slowed my computer down enough that I could literally see the difference.

Mustang said 11:29PM on 9-14-2006

The exact reason I stopped using Norton years ago. It's unbelievable that such a horrible program could still be added to so many new computers. You would think by now that HP, Compaq, etc would realize that Norton is bogging down and locking up all those new computers their customers just bought and would stop added it as standard equipment.

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