ive noticed exactly how much its slowed down because i usually did format after 2 ish years
the main source of cruft for me has been firefox and its ridiculously slow database
the best solution for those 2 thus far has been an ssd and windows 7s rather agressive preloading of programs
It's "degrading" only if you're going it wrong (e.g. disabling built-in disk defragmenter, installing shitty "tune up" apps, "cleaning" registry or doing any other dumb stuff). Otherwise it's not.
My install is from 2009 and it's still as fast as it was.
I want an OS where I don't have to wipe the disk and start again every two years.
I've been using Windows since 1993, please don't lecture me. I have a dedicated system partition, I have another partition for the user shell folders, and a third for apps and data, I defrag regularly, I don't install anything I don't need, I don't surf porn sites or download pirated software. I doubt anybody has a cleaner Windows box than I do, it's the OS that is shit.
Nope, mine is cleaner, cause it runs exactly same as a new install (I have a dual-boot second install, which is ~1 month old) and I don't claim OS is shit cause it's clearly your hands that are a problem.
also for the record i just checked up on the size of my oh so crufty registry and it sums up to about 50-60mb
might have been a problem 10 years ago but my current machine has 4 gigs of ram so who gives a crap about that?
There seems to be an implication here, unless you just get sick of your data every 2 years and decide to start again:
As for the registry, I'm not even sure it is the registry that causes Windows to bog down. Certainly it's a bad design decision and it will have some impact on performance but I would be surprised if that's the whole story.
Windows registry is very messy. 3 weeks after installing windows 7 on my home PC, onto a new, empty TB HD, I ran CCleaner and it removed 1.8g of stuff. i hadn't even installed many programs.....
If a BROWSER (a separate program!) doesn't manage it's cache properly... how is that the OS' fault?
Yes, but in "Cleaner" mode it doesn't touch the registry, only files. CCleaner has a "Registry" mode, but that doesn't show the size of files.
who the heck keeps his data on c anyway?
either way it did usual coincide with major changes like installing versions with the most recent service packs integrated into the install cd or switching graphics cards from nvidia to ati
stuff that warrants an os reinstall without being related to cruft
well have you ever had a look in /etc and /lib on any version of linux or unix? just as messy
its not like its actually possible to have a database of everything going inside a modern os without it getting hideously complicated