Windows 1607 (AU) sludge -Scheduled Tasks/Start Ups

hooked · 29 Oct 2016

I finally had to go to Windows 1607, thanks to the update that doesn't let you resched/change reboot times. Now I've been on it about 2 weeks. My startup, restart, and shutdown times are very slow!
I finally made time to start looking for ways to optimize. I have a utility that manages startup items, and I use it frequently.
It's broken down by Startup Programs, Scheduled Tasks, PlugIns, Application Svcs, and Windows services.
The Startup Programs I can determine if they should startup with Windows. But it gets much cloudier on the other four
categories.
Get this: There are 78 Scheduled Tasks and all but about 10 are Enabled. Almost all of them are Windows, and I'm clueless what most of them do. I've done it before - Googled any of the tasks that I don't understand, then decided if i could disable them. But as many times as I've had to reinstall Windows 10 for various reasons, I just don't have the energy or motivation to look up 40-50 tasks.
There are 75 Application Services, again - Mostly Windows and I don't know what many of them do.
Then, drum roll..... Services. I have 242 of them. Some I can easily spot because they're from my applications, or they're obvious Windows services that I know if I need or not.

So, does anyone know of a template more or less, that gives a standard recommended list of what Windows Needs to run? I think Viper still publishes lists of services - I haven't gotten that far since the Windows AU. And he always broke down several versions based on which Windows version, Home/Pro, Performance/Safe, etc. But those Scheduled Tasks and Application Services are a lot to peruse, and even if I take the time to Google them, I could still misinterpret the definition and disable something and blow up my system.

And I built this computer with some pretty high end components almost 2 years ago. It was built for speed at the time, and it should still be pretty fast. And until I clean up all this crap that's running (probably much of it needlessly) I don't feel like I can really troubleshoot to see if I have a hardware issue.

Any help out there? Thx

Mystere · 29 Oct 2016

While you certainly CAN go about things like you intend, I just want to warn you that in my experience 90+% of the time people have problems with Windows 10 is after they have tried to "customize". In other words, you're increasing your risk of having problems in the future if you do this.

But, it's your system, do with it as you wish.

hooked · 30 Oct 2016

I appreciate your input, and I don't ever go after it with a butcher knife. It's just that this go around with my PC being so slow, and me seeing at least 1/3 more startup items than previously - I'm sorta desperate. I just want some of my performance back.

Mystere · 30 Oct 2016

One of the things to keep in mind is that one reason you may see more items is that Windows does certain optimizations. For instance, if you have a low amount of memory, Windows will run many of your services under a single service handler exe, but when you have more memory it will run them separately as their own. So this will make it look like there are more services, but in reality it's the same, they're just running individually to gain more performance.

dalchina · 01 Nov 2016

Hi, question is, what's making your system slow.

Try:
1. a clean boot vs a normal boot
2. try disabling fast start-up
3. Perform a proper analysis using xperf and xbootmgr
Windows Performance, Speed Up Boot Time, Xbootmgr | TechNet
Analyzing a Slow Boot with Windows Performance Recorder Helge Klein
(Very technical though and not for the faint-hearted).
4. Grab a spare HDD and do a fresh install of Win 10 for test purposes, and see how that runs. If that's faster, it's not a Windows problem per se.

TairikuOkami · 01 Nov 2016

hooked said:

My startup, restart, and shutdown times are very slow!

For staters make sure, that you do NOT have "Standard SATA AHCI Controller" installed in IDE Controllers.

hooked · 01 Nov 2016

dalchina said:

Hi, question is, what's making your system slow.

Try:
1. a clean boot vs a normal boot
2. try disabling fast start-up
3. Perform a proper analysis using xperf and xbootmgr
Windows Performance, Speed Up Boot Time, Xbootmgr | TechNet
Analyzing a Slow Boot with Windows Performance Recorder Helge Klein
(Very technical though and not for the faint-hearted).
4. Grab a spare HDD and do a fresh install of Win 10 for test purposes, and see how that runs. If that's faster, it's not a Windows problem per se.

Oh my, thanks for all that info. I'll try anything new to troubleshoot. And no.... I don't have any SATA/IDE mix ups. Ha ha
I had already thought about installing windows on a spare drive. But I really want to use my primary drive, it's much faster. So I will be trying your advice.
Thx