Some Programs Slow to Load

Some programs are becoming slow to load or do not recognize their connection to a file extension. Most noticeable are Nitro PDF Professional which doesn't always start when I click on a PDF file, sometimes it does, some times it doesn't. Quicken is often slow to start, some times the window opens then it waits for the display, sometimes the there is a wait until the window even opens. Same for xplorer2 opening and even selecting another folder. Going back to Windows 7 with almost the identical installed programs/utilities (about 40) the "problem" goes away.

What are the causes and solutions?

I dunno, I use Quicken 2010, it always pops right open. What programs are loading when the computer starts? If you have certain AV programs, it may be performing extra monitoring on the exe files you are clicking on, before allowing them to start.

No AV programs. A couple of computer and network monitoring programs. Pretty much everything that loads has been there since October 27th. Microsoft programs seem to come up reasonably fast. Its just been a slow deterioration in the response of a few programs that I use often. I booted back to Windows 7 which has all the same programs and everything is fine.

Well then something in Windows 8 could be messed up or not reading right, my media computer was acting up like that, it turned out that my main system drive was developing read element failure. Windows 8 appears to have zero tolerance for any drive errors, and it always tries to fix them using its automated system. Win 8's repair system cannot do a full surface scan, you have to use a tool that can read the entire surface and repair read element failure. If you have run chkdsks and it continually finds new errors even after fixing errors, that may be the case. Once you check that, you can do an SFC /SCANNOW and see if there are any corrupted files.

I'll run a scan. The OS trying to be "helpful" sounds like a real possibility. What's SFC /SCANNOW?

Its System File Protection, that command checks all of your system files and if it finds ones that are different, it will put the originals back in. You may or may not need a real Windows 8 Install disk in the drive to run it, it will not find the files on a recovery partition.

I'd do a full disk check from outside of Windows first - Hiren's Boot disk has many Disk Checking tools that can do this fast that run from a DOS screen.

I did a Norton Utilities file check which "found" lots of "problems" but all it did was mess up Firefox so I had to reinstall it. I'll either live with the problems or go back to Win 7. I don't have any use for the Win 8 apps.

Norton is useless - Whatever program that was before they stole it and took it over, maybe worked. But after they take over a program, it becomes innefective.

Just try CCleaner, and Yamicsoft Windows 8 Manager has a "1-click cleaner" that is pretty dependable. Try those, you can use Yamicsoft for 15 days for free and get full use..

There is also an area in Yamicsoft for Speed, a little section called Optimization, you can shut off things that slow the system down, and Windows actually has to be set up for the amount of RAM you got and what kind of CPU you have - The Optimizer allows you to detect your Ram and caches on your CPU, it matches Windows to what you got and boom, 15 times faster.

Oops, they took out the Ram and CPU settings - But one thing you can shut off is the PREFETCHER which is probably what is slowing you way down:

Download the program and use these settings:

Tried all that. It may have made a difference, or maybe not, since the problems are a bit intermittent.
As for 1-click cleaner, they should send it back to whom ever they stole it from. It deleted 7 of my desktop icons that were links to files I use often. Not nice!

Thanks for you help but I'm beginning to think that Windows 7 will be a better way to go.

Hm, it would have deleted what it thought were dupes, There is a configuration screen for it now, they never had that for earlier versions of Manager. Sorry man, it behaves for me.

Well if Windows 7 runs quick and your programs pop right up, and they won't in Windows 8 even after all of that, I'd just go bnack to it. Something you have in your system is probably scanning every program that starts. Windows 8 has something built in that does this, carp! I forgot what it is called, it is part of SmartScreen but it tosses a huge purple BLOCK and from there you can choose to either quit or run anyway. It may be scanning the EXEs of these programs and slowing them up.

It runs from Internet Explorer and you can shut it off from there, open IE go to Internet Options and shut off Smnart Screen., If this doesnt do it, I dont know what else could be causing it. My AV programs used to cause a short delay when programs were starting but I removed it and went back to Defender.