New Updates Slowing Windows XP?

[Jason]

It's obvious that many XP users are experiencing dramatic performance
*decreases* since the April 13 wave of critical MS updates. Search this
group alone for "slow" in the subject and you will see an unusual number of
threads about it since April 13. I'm sure Microsoft is aware of the
problems but until they work out a formal solution let's share information
for immediate solutions or workarounds.

A client of mine with a fast desktop called me saying things were slow. I
went there and his XP Pro machine was crawling, particularly on the
network. Tracert took 5 minutes to complete (!) to www.yahoo.com yet nobody
else on his LAN had trouble. No spyware, no fragmentation, no strange event
log errors. I was so perplexed that I assumed it must be a bad network
cable and had him call his network people, but today he tells me even his
non-network programs are crashing or barely running.

Before I go back to help him, I'd like to hear whether anyone has found a
temporary fix. I was thinking about either uninstalling the updates,
running system restore or even installing SP2 RC-1. My client is running
Symantec AntiVirus and I've heard Symantec mentioned before in regard to
slow down, for what that's worth. Any feedback greatly appreciated.

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

I have installed all the recent updates on several PCs
and had no degradation of performance. Please note
that installing SP2 RC1 (beta) is not at all recommended
on an everyday production PC. Never install a SP beta on
a critical PC!

Try the following:

Description of the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310312&Product=winxp

How to Perform Disk Error Checking in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315265&Product=winxp

HOW TO: Analyze and Defragment a Disk in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305781&Product=winxp

If all else fails:

Unistall the updates.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

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| It's obvious that many XP users are experiencing dramatic performance
| *decreases* since the April 13 wave of critical MS updates. Search this
| group alone for "slow" in the subject and you will see an unusual number of
| threads about it since April 13. I'm sure Microsoft is aware of the
| problems but until they work out a formal solution let's share information
| for immediate solutions or workarounds.
|
| A client of mine with a fast desktop called me saying things were slow. I
| went there and his XP Pro machine was crawling, particularly on the
| network. Tracert took 5 minutes to complete (!) to www.yahoo.com yet nobody
| else on his LAN had trouble. No spyware, no fragmentation, no strange event
| log errors. I was so perplexed that I assumed it must be a bad network
| cable and had him call his network people, but today he tells me even his
| non-network programs are crashing or barely running.
|
| Before I go back to help him, I'd like to hear whether anyone has found a
| temporary fix. I was thinking about either uninstalling the updates,
| running system restore or even installing SP2 RC-1. My client is running
| Symantec AntiVirus and I've heard Symantec mentioned before in regard to
| slow down, for what that's worth. Any feedback greatly appreciated.