Annoyingly Slow Windows Maintenance

IceWolf

New Member
Messages
14
Location
Melissa, TX
I see lots of posts about how long various tasks take. In my case the daily Windows Maintenance seems to take up to 10 minutes to be done. Disk activity is maxed, CPU activity is High and it seems like no other computer functions will work until the maintenance is done. This behavior definitely started recently (6 months?). All you can do is change the time of day for maintenance. Is there a way to improve this takeover of the computer functions? More RAM?

Here are the details:
AMD Athalon X2 Dual Core 2.6 GHz
Windows 8.1 64-bit
Ram: 2 Gig
Hard Disk 200 gig Western Digital

Thank you!
IW
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    None
    CPU
    AMD Athlon X2
    Motherboard
    Asus M3A78
    Memory
    2 gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 8400
    Browser
    FF
    Antivirus
    Comodo
Update. By using Task Manager, I see that the process that hogs the drive and memory is in \System32\catroot.
Searching this topic, catroot and catroot2 have something to do with Windows update and cryptographic services to name 2 things.
Some articles recommend deleting the contents of these folder, but I'll hold off on this step until I know more about what is happening.

Thank you,
IW
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    None
    CPU
    AMD Athlon X2
    Motherboard
    Asus M3A78
    Memory
    2 gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 8400
    Browser
    FF
    Antivirus
    Comodo
I haven't done anything with catroot yet. Today, the same startup hogging is coming from the program \System 32\appraiser. This is all about collecting and sending data for the Customer Experience Program. Even though I do not download Customer Experience Program updates in Windows Updates, even though I have "do not participate" checked in the control panel I see in the Task Manager that all these programs start up and run every time. This helpful web site contains instructions to turn off the CEP tasks which makes sense. I check back if I have success with that method.

Documentation for VMware Horizon 7 version 7.0

IW
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    None
    CPU
    AMD Athlon X2
    Motherboard
    Asus M3A78
    Memory
    2 gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 8400
    Browser
    FF
    Antivirus
    Comodo
Well, I had what I consider to be a normal startup this morning without extended full bore drive activity for the first 10 minutes while W8.1 gathers information to send to Microsoft. And, I might add, without any announcements or indication of what task is running that prevents any program from starting up until the information gathering is complete.

I will observe startups for the next few days to confirm that I am correct. But judging from the number of other posts in this forum - zero - since my first post, I imagine that everyone has succumbed to Microsoft's constant nagging about upgrading to Windows 10, and is now experiencing the same kind of unwanted behavior with it. Windows 10! What will it do that Windows 8.1 will not do? It will take up more system resources and force users to stock up on memory and faster drives. And of course Windows 10 will present new and exciting challenges to hackers everywhere to find security holes and ways to defeat network firewalls and anti-virus programs. Check your Windows 10 update page to see how often you are bullied into switching to Windows 11, 12 and 13. Give me a break!

IW
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    None
    CPU
    AMD Athlon X2
    Motherboard
    Asus M3A78
    Memory
    2 gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 8400
    Browser
    FF
    Antivirus
    Comodo
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