Hmmm.. I have never had any issues with Windows 7 like you are having Snowie.  But then again, I run daily registry and cleanup operations on it, as I did on all OS's I have ever used. I also run a background defragmenter called mst Defrag, I love it, just set it and forget it.  Pretty well everything on all my OS's ran perfectly and the occasional hiccup was fixed using TuneUp Utilities and CCleaner for the most part. I am only using Windows 7 now though.

Do you have adequate memory for your Win 7 machine?   What's the bottleneck?  Is there an apllication that is in fact causing the issue by either a memory leak or by maintaining too many handles?

Well apparently you and I are on the same wave length Snowman, because I was thinking the same thing to myself just yesterday. You are exactly right because oddly enough I have the exact same problems you were describing. When I was using Vista, my machine was smokin' fast !! No slowdowns no matter how much I threw at it. I have a custom built machine that I put together myself, and believe me, it is built for speed ! There is no excuse why it should slow down when using Win7, but it does. Even my games have suffered, as they do not respond as well as they did on Vista. It's ironic that you have posted this thread today at this time, because I had already scheduled a time to do a re-install of my Vista OS tonight and drop the Win7. I just think I'm going to be happier that I did. I know that some will probably say that you just can't beat Win7, but maybe some peoples systems get along better with Win7 than does mine, and that's fine. But you've got to go with what has worked best for you in the past, and in my particular case it is definitely without question, my Vista OS.      -- Ace --

I've often considered going back to MSDOS 6.2......nothing has come close in speed......and it never slowed down.

I wonder if Quarterdeck could handle 16 GB of ram?

Probably says it all, Snow....

No problems with Windows 7 here, I ran vista and found it to be a sluggish mess and as soon as you pressed the O/S to do anything strenuous it would fall over and cry it's eyes out. No such problem with Win 7. Maybe the problem is with the machine and not the O/S. Time to upgrade perhaps?. It could be a variety of reasons but it easiest to blame the Operating System instead of the hardware running it. Like Lightstar said if you run regular or daily maintenance problems should be few and far between. I love Win 7 and will be keeping it instead of upgrading (or downgrading) to Windows 8 when it is released. 

7 uses 1 gig more ram than vista it also plays a huge role if you installed a 32bit version or a 64bit version
The best thing would be to post both system specs or the beginning of dxdiag of both systems that way we could search for the bottleneck cheers
 

Pretty obvious the faster of the two is a drug cheat..nough said

What roloccolor said tho my preference is to use speccy

My system, albeit just a laptop, runs like greased lightning when I'm on broadband rather than DSL. When I'm at crossroads, DSL, it runs slow as a turtle, sometimes taking whole minutes to load a page but when I use the net connection, broadband, at the BBQ shop it flies like an SST on steroids. Both are secure networks that require an entry code. When I had the HP Pavilion desktop a few years ago with Vista getting online, or even working offline was more of a hit and miss type thing. Since I've been using W7 there has been no problems. So I'm kinda leaning towards what Jafo said.

Well, now see, Tom, I've never had/felt the need for 'tuning/cleaning' applications on any of my OS's spanning from Windows 95 -> Vista.
And if that is what it take to get Windows 7 to run just as smooth.... Well... Vista, here I come.

8GB of mem should be quite enough. Same as on the Vista system.
Bottleneck? Based on the WEI, at first it was the processor scoring a 7.3, but after 3 months of use the SSD has slowed down from 7.5 to a 7.2.
(I guess SSD's are not what they are cracked up to be after all)
Applications used are the same as I used on the Vista system.

Exactly, Ace.

Yes, I know, Paul. But what I didn't mention was, but as I've also mentioned numerous times before, that on my old system Vista was mindblowingly faster than Windows 7.
My point was that newer/faster hardware shouldn't feel slower on a newer (and suposedly) faster OS.

Mike, speed isn't alpha and omega, but when an OS starts slowing down, and it's becoming a drag performing just the simplest tasks.... Then it's time to reconsider the alternativs.

---

I've given Windows 7 a fair try, and at first I was impressed by it's performance but now just as AceMatrix are doing, I'm scheduleing a reinstall of Vista.
I -may- be able to get Windows 7 'up to speed' again, but if I have to jump through hoops every couple of months to keep it up I'd rather go back to an OS where performance never was an issue.

We're using the same PSP program and I'm not having really any specific issues with performance that you are experiencing. It is an older program that wasn't designed for this OS but is rather "compatible". I get weird issues when WB repaints fairly often (1 out of 3 repaints) where the frames and tool windows do not paint or goes classic but that seems to be a WB problem.

I did have an issue where my boot times were becoming really long and ended up reinstalling the OS. Thanks to Yrag's suggestion I don't shut down my system daily anymore. System required reboots for changes appear to be normal.

Good luck with whatever you do, I know that drawing thing would drive me up the wall also.

Wow Snowie... so you never defragment your hard drive or delete temporary files or optimize or take care of your system at all?

and you are right about that. that might have been useful in the Win9x days, but since Windows XP it's 99% snake oil.

but for some reason people and computer magazines like that stuff.

try running it without any "usual skinnable additions" for a while, maybe one of them is causing it. doesn't hurt to close the browsers every now and when either.

SSDs don't need defragmenting, and it will actually shorten its lifespan if you do.

Snow....the issue is simple.  You compare two different systems with 2 different OS's and you see a difference.

Yes, it MUST be the OS because the 'slow'

 OS is on the 'faster' machine.

Wrong.

That does not even classify as a single blind experiment let alone a double.

Any results are meaningless as there are simply too many differentials.

Your car has a rough ride...so you pump the tyres and renew the shocks.....and it MUST have been one of those....correct?

Probably was....but which one?

Or both?

Or maybe someone forget there was a wheel alignment too....

Sure you can get an abNORMAL result.... simply because there's a driver or something on the new machine that doesn't like Win 7.

Is that a fault of Win7 or ....like the car  it's the nut holding the wheel? ....

As far as I can recall I haven't defragged any harddrives since I did it once, on Windows 95.
Found it to be a complete waste of time compared to what's being gained.
I actually found it easier/faster to simply reinstall Windows if/when it got too 'clogged up'.

Correct, but you can also get totally different results from two 100% identical hardware and software setups.
One runs without problems, the other is being a pain in the ass.
I've seen it numerous times.

AND... when one OS runs without problems, and another is being the pain in the ass - on the same hardware setup, I always choose door no 1.

Not necessarily. Windows 7 is a great OS, no doubt about that. My experience just tells me that Vista is better.

Well.....I'm back with my Vista OS and I've got to tell you, I'm smiling from ear to ear. It took a long time to get it all set up because of all the updates you have to install before it allows you to install the final service pack 2, but it was all worth it even though I was up most of the night getting things back to the way I like them. I didn't realize how much I missed this OS until I saw how fast the pages transitioned and even my Windowblinds program paints better than it did on Win7. It's just like slipping back into an old comfortable pair of jeans and I'm happy I made the choice to do this. It performs just like I remember and I know I'm not going to have to worry about it slowing down the more I use it, because for me, it just has never done that and I guess that's why I love it so much. So I just wanted to report back and say that all is well and I'm happy now.     -- Ace --

My first foray into Vista ended 'poorly'.  When your OS has no clue what your DSL Modem is you don't get very far down the road of updating/installing drivers, etc.

Since then I only have had it because Technet lets me.  [I pay for Win7 and Office.....Vista is the idiot-sister-who-insists-in-coming-along]....

This current install of '7 has been going two and a half years without a single problem.

I do have mstDefrag looking after my non-SSD drives and regularly use CCleaner. Some programs create lots of temp files which need removing and FF seems to create huge temp internet files.

But all this is a normal part of running a PC. Do you wash your car? Change the oil? It's all the same thing

Excellent point Fuzzy Logic.