Category: Windows and Microsoft Office

Download latest Windows 10 ISO from here and perform a Windows 10 Pro installation to a freshly procured virtual machine. Say No to pretty much everything. Log into your Microsoft account during installation if you have other synchronised Windows devices already.

If using Oracle Virtualbox, insert VirtualBox Guest Additions CD and install, Reboot VM

If using an Sun Microsystems/Oracle Keyboard, change Host Key to Alt Graph on Keyboard since there’s no Right-Ctrl key which is the default.

Search for Windows Updates, Check for Updates, Install Windows Updates, Reboot VM

Open Powershell as Administrator and run the following command taken from here

iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://git.io/JJ8R4'))

Remove components you don’t require by clicking on each button. The script to remove the feature will execute in the PowerShell console behind.

I like to install Rainmeters and I simply stick with the default meters/widgets so I can easily keep track of the VM resource consumption at a glance, if things should slow up..

This is a running list of optimizations I’ve made in the past on problematic Windows 10 desktop systems to speed them up/fix them.

remove avast AV
remove avast VPN
restore windows defender AV
remove windows c++
check startup programs, remove superflouous items
analyze and defrag hard disk
reset windows updates
remove transparency effects
install rainmeter and fix items to desktop
make rainmeters disappear on mouse over
install brave browser
remove immediate access to MS Edge browser
set dark themes in windows and brave
change power settings to optimize for performance
change power settings to not power down or sleep when plugged in
change windows updates to dynamically adjust times when it performs windows updates based on usage
change display effects to remove all special effects apart from drop shadows and show window contents when dragging.
Disabled Windows Search Service (Search Indexing)
Enable restart and notification for restart when Windows Updates needs it
troubleshoot windows updates.
system installed updates on restart
feature update to windows 10 version 2004 being prepared. leave laptop on to complete.
Synced time and set system to sync region automatically
Run cmd as admin, run SFC /scannow to check for missing / damaged system files. Some found and repaired.

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Windows 10 Slowness seems to bug most users, with a constant degree of lag when flicking between tasks.  It can be stressful and disruptive to your reaching a productive, flow state.

Most modern mid-range laptops are more than capable of running multiple operating systems simultaneously, rocking Intel core i5 processors with vPro technology just like their floor standing, desk based or rack mounted workstation and server brethren so why then, is your laptop slow when all it has to do is run a single instance of Windows 10, – often on a SSD (Solid State Drive) that claims to be faster than it’s mechanical, spinning counterpart?

Many users have reverted to Windows 7 seeing as Windows 8 was such an abomination (Windows 10 is a long way from winning me over too, tbf) and are left wondering what the future holds for them from here on in, in terms of upgrade path and acceptable snappy performance.

Aside from the mammoth processors and supercharged block storage devices inside the modern affordable laptop, there is also the huge amount of RAM too.  Large RAM requirements have arisen out of the desire to run multiple applications simultaneously and flick between them, but also as a result of a widespread transition from 32-bit operating systems and applications to 64-bit – a move that in itself warrants double the amount of physical RAM in order to match the performance.

And just look at all that %Idle time?  HOW CAN IT BE SO SLOWWW?!!

Back in the 32-bit 1GB RAM days when RAM was expensive, page files were used to write pages of memory to disk, to free up precious, fast volatile RAM (You can still run many light weight distributions of Linux on that spec with very little to no slowness and minimal to no swapping to virtual memory too.  Same is true of 64 bit with 2GB RAM.)

The size of the pagefile defaulted to the amount of RAM.  This was due to the assumption that if the amount of pagefile needs to be any bigger than that, then you really do need more physical RAM as your system would have undoubtedly ground to a snails pace already.

And that is still the default.  The problem with that, is that in a laptop with a single partition, a single 8GB file used for regularly paging the chosen contents of 8GB physical memory out to it, puts a fair bit of strain on the IO subsystem – and it’s unnecessary strain.  With 8GB RAM, you’ll not need much if any page file at all, for most tasks.

So with that in mind, change your virtual memory settings from being “system managed”, so a fixed size pagefile set at the “Recommended” size.

In Control Panel, System…

These settings will need a reboot to take effect.  You should notice snappier performance as a result.

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So Chrome won’t start and the error message is unhelpful.  Microsoft support won’t help of course and Google’s sledgehammer approach is

“just blow away your User Data and start over”

but you don’t want to loose your bookmarks, stored passwords etc that make your life easier and more efficient.  Plus you can’t remember half your passwords anymore.

Well, here’s what that unhelpful error message should look like in a perfect world…

…It’d save a lot of pain if it did.  You’re welcome Google.

So, using Task Manager, kill off any running Google Chrome processes (from having clicked on it 20 times before realising it’s never going to start).

To get to the folder you need to rename in order to get your Chrome browser up and running again with all your bookmarks intact (mine survived ok),

Click Start, Run,

Rename the Default folder to BackupDefault

Try restarting Chrome.  Hopefully you’re sorted.

If not, Google also recommend deleting the following User Data folder.  I don’t know what will survive if you do.  Fortunately, it never came to that for me.

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