This is really good info. Thanks to both of you. I really liked XP and Vista wasn't a huge change for me at least. I read about all the bloat and inefficiencies of Vista, but haven't had a lick of problem with it.
The service packs really did wonders for Vista, but by the time they came out the name had already been ruined so they released 7 which is basically just Vista with another service pack and a new taskbar.
We switched to 7 at work last month and it's really growing on me so I've been contemplating switching to it. OEM is the only option though and even though I use OEM now I'm not sure it'd be worth it?
The only difference between an OEM copy and a retail copy is the number of installs you're allowed before you have to get another. Based on that I'd say that if you don't regularly reinstall the OS it's the better deal.
I have no interest in 8 at all. Even though I have a Windows phone and love the tiles I don't want that on my comp. I know I can circumvent that, but the reviews I've seen just don't scream get 8.
8's UI has some serious problems. The 8.1 update helped, but it wasn't enough. If you're really brave, you may try waiting until next year. It sounds like Windows 9 (or possibly though unlikely 8.2) will be released in April 2015. It sounds like it will be to 8 what 7 was to Vista. If you don't have a touchscreen it will automatically boot you into the desktop rather than the tiles, the start menu is coming back, and they're ditching the 'feature' of having two versions of many programs, one for tiles and one for desktop, in favor of simply running the tile version in a window when in desktop mode. It should also inherit 8's improved performance, which is just about the only reason to get it right now.
I never looked into the Window defragger, but no matter how many times I ran it it just didn't seem to do much. I just accepted that my drive was never that fragmented. Maybe complacency?
That's because it
doesn't do much. Not in XP, anyway. It will defrag the files, but won't move complete ones so they get plopped at random spots on the volume and it often leaves you with as much as 20% fragmentation, even on good days.
Technically speaking, NTFS is designed to reduce the performance impact of fragmentation, but that's a stupid idea when you can greatly reduce the risk of fragmentation in the first place. Some programs are also more affected by fragmentation than others. With Morrowind or C&C Tiberian Sun I mostly just notice an increase in load times when the program is fragmented, while Civilization 4 and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines slow to a crawl. Should work fine on SSDs, though. Fragmentation has no effect on a solid state drive and defragging it will actually reduce the drive's life expectancy.
I will check on the programs you mentioned Cabal. This is one thing people in these types of forums don't talk about much. Maybe once a week I'll start a new thread to discuss what anti-virus other use/recommend or SSD vs HD or video cards. At least gets everyone active here. Or a handful of us anyway.
If that Auslogics one is as good as the AVG defragger, I'm getting rid of the AVG suite and keeping that one. I've barely used anything from it other than the defragger anyway.
Periodic tech threads would be nice. I'd like to learn more about the differences between AMD and Intel CPUs, for instance. I don't think I've even seen an AMD system so I don't exactly have much experience with them.
It would be nice to get the PC improved in it's performance. Zelph's suggestion the other day in the other thread did help but I am still having problems and my guess is it's the hard-drive, whether it be that the drive is dying or that it's fragmented I am not sure yet. Hopefully the latter.