AVG--is it what's slowing down my build?

[inflames988]

Ive been running this for a while, but recently have been wondering if it's whats slowing my PC down. since i installed it, windows loading times have gotten alot higher, although i did put a good 8 gigs of AAC audio files on around the same time, ive always wondered if just having more stuff on the HDD will slow it down. I built this comp in august and since then it has slowed down alot (obviously, since new programs have been added and so on) and i was just wondering if this was the reason its so slow. Shutdowns take a while too, alot longer then they used to, id say both startup and shutdown are 5-7x slower then they used to be.

Specs are in sig, and im running XP Home

[rjfvillarosa]

I don't see AVG slowing your machine down, to be honest the only time I ever notice it's there is when it does a scan. Have you checked your start up list? how about spyware scans have you done any recently?
As regards XP shutting down faster it seems the longer XP runs without a format the longer it takes to shut down, XP auto checks to give everything time to close before shutting down and it seems to constantly add to the list of things it is waiting for wether you have them or not.
A good tweak to get XP to shut down faster is:
1. Start Regedit.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control.
3. Click on the "Control" Folder.
4. Select "WaitToKillServiceTimeout"
5. Right click on it and select Modify.
6. Set it to a value lower than 20000, say 1000 as a test.
You can always lower the 1000 value to make it shut down faster.

[inflames988]

Originally Posted by rjfvillarosa I don't see AVG slowing your machine down, to be honest the only time I ever notice it's there is when it does a scan. Have you checked your start up list? how about spyware scans have you done any recently? As regards XP shutting down faster it seems the longer XP runs without a format the longer it takes to shut down, XP auto checks to give everything time to close before shutting down and it seems to constantly add to the list of things it is waiting for wether you have them or not. A good tweak to get XP to shut down faster is: 1. Start Regedit. 2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control. 3. Click on the "Control" Folder. 4. Select "WaitToKillServiceTimeout" 5. Right click on it and select Modify. 6. Set it to a value lower than 20000, say 1000 as a test. You can always lower the 1000 value to make it shut down faster.

i check the startup often, barely anything except AVG start up automatically, and i use firefox to keep spyware off, ad-aware and spybot to get what little comes thru so thats not the prob--what will this windows tweak do exactly? any negative effects?


EDIT: just tested it. much faster shutdown, bout the same as when i first set up the build...good stuff. might crank it down more, but what exactly does this speed up--or skip doing so that it shuts down so fast?

[rjfvillarosa]

From what I have seen XP is on a learning curve and is always trying to help you.
This tweak is in with services, XP watches for and trys to allow time for programs to end and peripherals to shut down when you shut down, that is why it gets longer and longer as time goes by it keeps adding to it's list of things to wait for, you just shortened the time that it waits.

[icallmedan]

It is weird, because on my system I installed AVG, uninstalled NAV, and it seems like loading times have gotten a lot longer too. Granted I have just ripped 17gigs of music to my HD, so I am in the same situation as you. My laptop loads a lot faster than my desktop and that is only a 1.4GHz Pentium M, 256MB of RAM, and a 60gig 4200RPM HDD . My desktop is a 2.6GHz P4, 512Mb dual chennl, and an 80 gig 7200RPM HDD. I haven't done a reinstall in 1 year and 3 months, so I should probably sdo that soon.

**edit
My laptop is running AVG with the same 17Gigs of musics....

[kev7555]

I had the same thing happen when I ripped large amounts of music on to my drive. I can say with 99% certainty that AVG is not what is slowing it down. I run AVG in all of my builds and install it on most field repairs. If any virus program is going to slow down performance, it's Norton or McAfee.

I have always seen improvements in start up and shutdown when using AVG as opposed to other products.

-Kev

[icallmedan]

Yeah, I agree. I think it is only after I ripped the 17 gigs of music that problems arised.

[doubledragon5]

Originally Posted by rjfvillarosa I don't see AVG slowing your machine down, to be honest the only time I ever notice it's there is when it does a scan. Have you checked your start up list? how about spyware scans have you done any recently? As regards XP shutting down faster it seems the longer XP runs without a format the longer it takes to shut down, XP auto checks to give everything time to close before shutting down and it seems to constantly add to the list of things it is waiting for wether you have them or not. A good tweak to get XP to shut down faster is: 1. Start Regedit. 2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control. 3. Click on the "Control" Folder. 4. Select "WaitToKillServiceTimeout" 5. Right click on it and select Modify. 6. Set it to a value lower than 20000, say 1000 as a test. You can always lower the 1000 value to make it shut down faster.

Nice tweak, I have noticed if a lot of programs are runing in back ground, things will load and shutdown slower. From time to time I will check my startup items and uncheck the ones that I don't need runing especially in the taskbar.. Also if you install a lot of programs, and rip a lot of music, onto your hd, it might be a good Idea to do a diskdefrag..

Another tweak to consider is shutting down your index services. This as I hear will also slow xp down. Open up my computer>right click on properties of you hd. then uncheck "Allow Index Service to index this disk for faster file searching".

I also do a disk clean up at least once every two weeks.. I run AVG and haven't noticed any change in startup or shutdown while ruing it.