Comments on: This Week at Mobile Tech Manor #61: the Creeping Crud

By: markz

markz — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:18:44 +0000

Hi, I don’t think that’s really what ‘creeping crud’ is. The registry can bloat all it wants but it’s a database with random access so size isn’t relevant. What does happen is that crappy applications put things into your startup (in the registry) and sometimes don’t uninstall or update right. Don’t blame microsoft – blame whatever the heck you decided to install yesterday. And this has nothing to do with turning your machine on and off – typical stupid mac comments.

By: Allan Jones

Allan Jones — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:19:14 +0000

Re: creeping crud; every so often a computer magazine publishes an article on how to speed up a Windows machine that’s taking ages to start. They tell you to turn off self-loading apps you don’t need, defrag the drive, and so on. I dutifully do all these, but I’ve yet to find they make a significant difference – certainly they don’t get you anywhere near the performance when the installation was new, which is what you want.

I do remember that one of the promises made for Vista was that this kind of slowing down was a thing of the past. However, the Vista laptop on which I’ve just put Windows 7 was taking an eternity to boot, and misbehaving in all kinds of way.

A colleague says he very seldom shuts down his Mac notebook – always just hibernates or sleeps. Whenever I’ve tried that with Windows, I’ve found all sorts of anomalies on waking: wi-fi doesn’t reconnect, devices in the USB ports are no longer recognised, and more. I don’t really believe Windows 7 will be any different. Microsoft still has a long way to go.

By: jake

jake — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 06:00:31 +0000

James,

what do you think of the upcoming Viliv S10 as a direct competitor to the Lenovo X200? I’ve always wanted a tablet Lenovo (X61and now x200) but could never justify the cost.

With 2.0ghz, SSD, and 720p touch screen at probably a much lower price I see a huge market opening up for the S10 in the corporate world, not to mention the mass netbook market.

The only problem with the S10 is the smallish 1GB of memory.

By: Griffon

Griffon — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:41:04 +0000

actually, sounds more like drive defrag time… but yeah at the end of the day win7 is windows and will suffer registry glut just like very other version back to the beginning of wintime.

By: bluespapa

bluespapa — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 05:35:01 +0000

I swear, the zip of a new computer disappears pretty fast when you’re spending days installing updates. Just when you think you must surely have them all, there are sixty-three more–before yet another service pack.

You hit the nail on the head that starting a program (jeepers, Windows Explorer, not some media intensive behemoth), sleeping and waking up are absolutely essential to have quick on mobile tech.

Last summer I sat in a meeting with my boss praising me on my innovative use of technology–while I was trying to get a jammed up UMPC back to work without having to force a reboot. Insane.

By: Mike Cane

Mike Cane — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:20:13 +0000

I’ve used CCleaner and other tools. The creeping crud of XP is driving me mad. And to top it off, as I’ve installed XP Updates, functionality has been increasingly crippled. I used to play video on this 1.8GHz Celeron with no problems whatsoever. Now it struggles to do even SD YouTube! When I did SP3, the slowdown was so bad, I rolled back to SP2. That really didn’t help much, either!

If Microsoft opens retail stores, instead of a Genius Bar, I suggest a Punch Me Stand. Where someone can go bash someone from MS in the face for all the time we’ve lost and aggravation we’ve had.

By: borax99 (AlainC.)

borax99 (AlainC.) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:44:52 +0000

Hmm CCleaner has done a fair job helping me fight the crud creep. Disappointing however to hear that it will still be a hassle with Win 7.

By: Darwin

Darwin — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:17:55 +0000

The registry is the cause of Windows rot. Totally predictable and expected that this would continue to be an issue on Windows 7. The only fix is to reinstall the OS.

By: James Kendrick

James Kendrick — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:14:44 +0000

Yes, just about all Android phones to date have much the same hardware. That’s why I am anxious to see phones with the Snapdragon processor start to hit the streets. That will be revolutionary for Android.

By: turn.self.off

turn.self.off — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:06:33 +0000

that creeping crud effect is something that can get ones conspiracy suspicions going…

By: NeoteriX

NeoteriX — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:02:55 +0000

James,

I just wanted to throw your way an interesting article at engadget re: Android hardware. It sounds like the Hero has some great software enhancements over the original G1 that gives it added functionality. However, it seems that from a hardware perspective, it’s still using essentially the same hardware (aside from a RAM bump) as the original G1.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/14/core-values-the-silicon-behind-android/