Some would call it “common knowledge”. “Windows Rot” is claimed to be the tendency of a Windows install to “decay” over time and become unusable. There are numerous articles and postings on the web about this problem; most recently, I saw an article that basically conjectures whether Windows 10 would solve this “long-standing” problem with Windows.

Thing is, this problem is non-existent.

Let me explain. Essentially the claim is that an OS installation becomes bogged down over time with files, programs, background tasks, etc. such that it becomes slower. The article I found- which I won’t link to, because I Don’t want to give them the page views nor an additional incoming link, actually claimed that 5-year old installations of Windows become “unusable”.

What is actually happening is the computer is not well maintained. You get more background processes because you install software without due vigilance; you accumulate crap files because you don’t cleanup your drive contents. You pick up artifacts and extra services for the same reason. The claim that Windows is inherently going to “rot” and become slower and harder to use the longer it has been in use is as valid as a claim that a bedroom is inherently going to become messier over time. And the thing is these properties are not inherent to the OS (or the room) but rather with the user (or the occupant).

The sad part is that people don’t realize that the reason their systems get slow over time is because they are terrible users; It would be like a person wondering how their bedroom becomes a huge mess and figuring it must be the colour of the paint. “Well, gee, this white paint must be attracting these pizza boxes”. The downside is that many of them refuse to accept the responsibility for the problem and do exactly that. Further still, there is software that exists purely to prey on people looking to fix this problem- primarily, Registry Cleaners and “tune up” programs.

Registry Cleaners are junk software, and “tune-up” programs are typically no better. People swear by them. These people fall into a category of people which those of us who understand how the software works classify as “wrong”.

Registry Cleaners

I feel like I’ve covered Registry Cleaner programs in depth already, but I can’t remember if it was ever in a post here or a forum post elsewhere. Regardless, it never hurts to reiterate. Registry Cleaners, by their very name, are intended to “Clean” the Windows Registry. part of their success is due to the rather enigmatic nature of the Registry. it is not something that a typical user is going to understand; they know it is there, but what it is and what it does might not always be clear. The fact is that the Registry is literally just a blob of configuration information. Software saves configuration data, and reads it. The concept of a “Registry cleaner” implies that there is a such thing as a “dirty” registry. Which is actually nonsensical. While the registry will accumulate old keys and sections of unused data, these unused pieces of information do not affect performance. The big problem with registry cleaners is in particular in the way they decide what is “dirt” in the registry. This requires that the Cleaner software make assumptions about what a Section or Key is for; some will try to identify something that looks like a filename and proclaim it is invalid if the file doesn’t exist. This actually caused a problem years ago for me with a user that was trying to utilize BASeParser on their system. They were encountering strange errors and I was able to determine that the registry keys were corrupted. By a Registry Cleaner. One key I was storing was being used to store a filename to create. They ran a registry cleaner (I forget the software name) and it apparently decided that since the file didn’t exist the data was garbage. BASeParser however was written to expect a set of keys- if it writes some, it writes them all. So it finds the other data indicating there should be a filename value, then finds there is no such value and crashes. Arguably, this was also poor error handling on my part but when you have other software screwing about with your data, defensive programming really only is of limited utility. If you cannot even rely on data you store in the registry being there when you want to read it, it almost makes it pointless to try.

Furthermore, Registry Cleaners can actually cause corruption. Many registry cleaners are somehow able to find hundreds of “issues” with a completely fresh Windows XP install. Some products will even make claims- “Windows Update is broken” based on entirely irrelevant keys. Interestingly, they have the effect of being self-fulfilling; with some software you can run it and it will claim that a key not existing is a problem. So you run it and it creates an empty key. Then you run it again and it claims the empty key is a problem. Basically, the fix it applies is also considered a problem. Others actually magnify issues.

Tune-up Programs

Relying on a customerbase similar to the first one, and often being a “suite” of system utilities including a Registry Cleaner, Tune-up programs are typically quite “Snake-oil” in form. They will install numerous background processes to “Monitor” your system performance, which themselves often take up a lot of CPU time for some reason. Than they for some reason also refuse to classify their own executables when they are used to find say executables that are stressing the system. If you aren’t using a part of their Tune-Up suite, they will usually show that as a “major issue”. So if you blindly “fix” all issues, it will install and enable that other piece of software they want you to run.

Basic PC maintenance is quite simple and does not require special software. Just be learn some basics about processes and what they are and keep tabs on possible problem processes, particularly after installing software. While tune-up programs typically provide features that will present this information in an easier to digest manner, they usually bring with them a lot of “snake-oil” components; it is sort of as if the projects were started in good faith, and then somebody realized they could pretty much screw with the user and have them buy and use completely unnecessary components. And abuse of trust, if you will.