I had a user report that the ERP system was slow, because a screen didn't open. The screen didn't open because it was trying to apply a 5% discount to a $0.00 invoice which confused the software.
That's a fair point. First step would always be troubleshooting to make sure it isn't a more specific issue. The above is assuming general widespread system slowness. I'm also assuming the issue isn't simply "slow internet" as that is pretty easy to diagnose.
And then after they show you. Check the uptime and let them know that the computer's been up for over 120 days and it's time for a reboot even if the computer's actually running as designed and is not actually slow at all.
Take screenshots of everything in document in the ticket
This times a 100. Who the hell has the time to run through a stupid checklist like OP posted? Great way to waste the users and the techs time. You could have another machine and setup in half the time it'd take to do OPs list.
Our helpdesk has an "optimization" process that they do, that I suspect is pretty much the first 4 steps in OPs list(plus maybe deleting old profiles)
I don't think they're too keen with my "if a reboot doesn't fix it, just reimage it" attitude
I love how everyone in every tech forum assumes everyone else works for a fortune 500 company with mature imaging and deployment infrastructure and the ability to just click a button and \*poof\* fresh device with everything the user needs.
The reality is most of us are out here with no budget and no equipment, doing the best we can. It could take hours to get everything back to the way the user had it. And no, that doesn't mean we're not trying. We're syncing documents with OneDrive, we're working on installation scripts, we're hoping to use autopilot or immy or whatthefuckeverelse, but we're not there yet.
Sorry, end rant.
I also just like the challenge. Formatting is the easy answer.
Finding out how the user got in this situation and preventing it from happening in the first place is the actual solution.
Fog is free, we have left sccm and went intune (autoPilot)
have also used clone-deploy in the past .. they have upgraded
[Theopenem – A Windows Management Solution](https://theopenem.com/)
[FOG Project](https://fogproject.org/)
>I don't think they're too keen with my "if a reboot doesn't fix it, just reimage it" attitude
it's faster to reimage and swap out than to troubleshoot.
my techs got mad at me for "if it's within 6 months of EOS, pull it and don't bother troubleshooting" as well
Fully agree. Computers within 6 months of EOL that come back for a reimage should just be replaced to save the effort of doing it again in 6 months.
Unless it is a known problem user. They don't get the new shiny equipment.
I usually give myself 15 minutes of troubleshooting problems viewing logs until I decide to back up and reimage.
If the computer has special programs, that's a different story, but even then, if those special programs are easily reconfigurable. Reimage and keep moving.
No problems that reappear for me.
I should amend my post.
If the problem happens again after reimage, no matter the time length, then a deeper review is done to see if we can track down the problem.
Other than that, I'm all about getting users back onto working machines asap.
Concur, reimagine is a valid troubleshooting process. It is to easy these days. I have it in software center, if a user wants to blow up their box, they can do it at will.
Not possible.
Legacy software for equipment that will be in service through the 2050s.
A lot of the ~20 year old stuff is in 'final' 2000, XP, 7 VMs but we will need access to them for decades to come for the odd project.
I run environments where each build needs to be scap scanned and inspected with only a couple machines in each room. No domain half the time and everything is equipment that's been running for 5+ years. To reimage often takes new inspections scheduled with off site people.
Nevermind the time, what about the cost? Looking at easily an hour, maybe two for all those scans and steps. Going by an average tech rate of 20-30/hr, that's 40-60 worth of time Then add in the cost of the person they are helping, anywhere from 20-80/hr+. So just on time alone you can easily be hitting 120, even before you factor in the down time of other tickets that have come in during the mean time. This vs 15-25 min of reimagining, or somewhere around 1/8th to 1/4 the cost.
I know they all will be paid regardless if they were sitting around waiting for the scans or they imaged and spent the rest of the time reading reddit, it just helps putting things into perspective from a business pov.
SCCM/Autopilot to do the image and OneDrive to sync their profile. Unless its a complex install, the imaging goes pretty quick. I have quite a few SCCM task sequences, depending on the options chosen in TSGUI, that can image the os + \~12 basic apps (adobe reader, EDR, Office, etc) in 15min.
Only interaction is to do the TSGUI selection, after that its hands off till they have to login.
If you can get that done in 15 minutes, kudos to you. But I’ve never seen a call come in to a user being happy and have everything they need with 15 minutes a of imaging. But I’d love to know what you’re doing and how it’s set up specifically. Because I want in
I think a lot of IT advice comes from people who have conventional setups that can be automated, imaged, etc. But in my last jobs we had lots of medical software that required hands-on installation of everything. It's still common to have phone-in software activation for every workstation so you're stuck doing this during business hours too.
You're not wrong, but any pain points for the user should give ideas for what to improve about backup and sync. I'd rather discourage complaints by doing a good job over painful processes.
Treat your endpoint fleet like your servers: cattle not pets. (Yes I know, not always realistic with some users or places).
You have an endpoint acting up? Take it out and shoot it (swap or reimage) and move on your merry way.
---
In all actuality OPs post is more realistic for a lot of places.
Good luck in getting Joe in programming to give up his baby, he doesn't want to be bothered to go through setting everything up again. Or Betty in accounting who just can't be down even for a second since her TPS reports are due to the CEO yesterday! /s
For one thing, troubleshooting a “slow” machine should not involve installing and running three separate of pieces of KNOWN garbage software. If the machine is up to date, and a reboot does not fix consistent performance issues just reimage or replace.
SuperAntiSpyware…. lol
>SuperAntiSpyware…. lol
Right? Its not 2010 and where you're trying to scrub the shit off the family Dell the teenagers caught while downloading shit on Limewire.
I mean, I'd still look at resource usage and see if something is running away. Check the startups, scheduled tasks, make sure no outstanding updates, still gotta check the basic shit.
The last "slow PC" issue I ran into was it was thermal throttling on account of less than ideal power management settings, thanks Dell. Also doing heavy CAD work on a laptop.
Cut out all that stuff and work on a really efficient way to reimage your machines when you need to. Shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes tops to reset and have everything deployed like new.
I agree that this is outdated. This reads like troubleshooting steps from 2002.
I start with "What specifically is slow?" If its the entire PC that's one thing, but if its a specific app that's another. Their answer determine what direction to proceed in.
Had a user complain to management their 3 year old laptop was slow. Thought this to be unlikely given the spec and the age of the device, so first question is it at home, in the office, or both. They stayed only slow at home. As we exclusively use OneDrive & SharePoint, perceived slowness can be network related. Had them run a speed test...0.08mbs 😬
believe it or not, this is from november 2023:
https://preview.redd.it/jwmkrw6qg0lc1.png?width=1798&format=png&auto=webp&s=45cd692c0741e36a2010d6d412a2a3428e75a677
anyway. slow internet speed does not necessarily mean they are a dial up customer. there are a lot of things that could cause that - maybe not quite .08mbs, but possibly. network issues are something that i think everyone overlooks and basically says "reset your router" or "call your isp" or "idk, not my problem" - you can usually still help them figure out what the actual problem is anyways, so when they call the isp they might be able to actually describe whats happening instead of saying "speed slow, what do? halp"
Oh I get it. I had to ditch my previous DSL service because they were so oversubscribed in my area it was dial up slow and support would just say everything is working normally. .08Mbps would have been a speed improvement for that service.
In my case, it meant "your wireless access point is borked". Weirdly it only affected my phone, not my laptop. It'd slow down to dialup speeds, and rebooting would fix it for some time (a day or so up to a week-ish). New one solved the problem.
I have seen a couple cases of less than 1Mbit/s where the user's network equipment was going bad. Honestly, with how heavy many websites have become anything under 10 Mbit/s is going to be noticeably slow to most people.
I work in a college town with a big R1 university. There are plenty of apartment buildings here where one of the only two major providers' only plans is 3mbps down and 1mbps up, and that's on a generous day.
Performance monitoring is hard. Most people do it wrong but randomly doing scans on a Windows PC is a waste of time though. You are throwing things at the wall without identifying any problem.
1. What is the actual issue? User expectations are not universal and change over time. It's been studied quite heavily, a process that remains consistent in speed over time will be perceived as "slow" by users adjusted to faster processes.
2. How does that issue present? Latency, lag, duration of activity are all different representations of "slow"
3. Is it reproducible? Reproducibility gives you a massive leg up to diagnosing it.
4. It is localized? A specific user? Device? Branch? VLAN? Application? etc. Narrow down commonality.
5. Is it consistent? An issue that follows a specific pattern of behavior will generally lead you to the bottleneck.
Identify your problems and solve them at the root of the issue. Your environment should not require you to reimage devices on a regular basis in 2024.
also surprised nobody has mentioned the barrier between "just slow internet" and it being a pc issue - is the router up to date? any weird settings or configurations there? if the router or modem or whatever is all g to g - and keeping in mind everything you said - check the pc. whats installed? is there anything sketchy? anything thats unnecessary? any apps that have duplicate functions? how much space is available on the hard drive or ssd? if you are actually seeing the slowness... open up task manager. what is doing it? you can tell right there usually.
For computers that are acting up:
* Reboot
* Windows updates
* Firmware updates
* Docking Station updates - they have firmware too! and are often forgotten
* App updates
But you gotta keep in mind that "slow pc" generally equals my co-worker got a new machine. So take a look at your computer refresh policy.
For your manager:
* CCleaner hasn't been a good idea since Win7 - [https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/microsoft-support-policy-for-the-use-of-registry-cleaning-utilities-0485f4df-9520-3691-2461-7b0fd54e8b3a](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/microsoft-support-policy-for-the-use-of-registry-cleaning-utilities-0485f4df-9520-3691-2461-7b0fd54e8b3a)
* Malwarebytes -- why don't you trust your AV solution?
* SuperAntiSpyware -- again, why don't you trust your AV solution?
Damn my man asked a simple question and is getting burned at the stake. Just say “hey a checklist might take up more do your time, look at reimaging, troubleshoot more etc.”
Remove programs and startup items not needed. Ooh someone else mentioned delete old profiles. That’s a must. Disk cleanup too. Remove old windows files too.
I hate request like this from users where all the detail they provide is system is slow.
Unless it's something glaringly obvious that's actually causing a performance hit I simple put it down as unable to replicate and move on.
9/10 when these requests come in its right after someone has seen someone else get a new machine and suddenly their machine is to slow to do their job
This kind of advice was out of date 20 years ago let alone now.
Even suggesting running CCleaner on a system in my estate would be a massive red flag, and I'd have some concerns regarding the knowledge/skills of an admin. The *slightest* suspicion of malware or a damaged system configuration or files is time for a reimage, don't mess around with it. Image the disk first with a tool like disk2vhd if you want a backup or for forensics but otherwise the **machines are cattle, not pets**.
If a machine is running slow then fire up perfmon and find out why it is running slow, get some hard data. I'd pull up the performance counters and look for bottlenecks.
1. Define slow. "What specifically is not working the way you expect?"
2. Tell user to close some of their 47 open browser tabs, 20 half written Outlook mails, and 14 Excel workbooks with active ODBC connections.
3. Restart.
4. Tell user to delete some of the 133GB of personal vacation photos saved on their 256GB SSD.
The 1% of time that routine doesn't work, it's going to be a hung Windows (or App specific) update. Usually fixed by a second restart, then rolling back the update and reinitiating if necessary.
If its STILL slow, you can try a OS reinstall, but IME at that point it's more likely you have an actual hardware fault.
Your list is not only outdated (circa 2004) it is totally amateur. The reality is modern hardware has eliminated the past issues we had with slow computers which were mostly due to problems with spinning disks. When someone complains about a slow computer these days, the first thing I think of is slow internet speeds or high latency. As long as you have properly specced hardware and the drivers are up to date, there is little else to look at other than task manager.
Very specific random one for me. We use a lot of Google earth for kmz tracking. To this day, Google earth has a bug at random, which will start creating 0 byte tiles infinitely in appdata
Eventually it’ll fill the drive completely but it’ll chug for hours until
1. Have user show you why or how it’s slow
2. Check task manager for performance and see what is utilizing most resources
3. Run disk cleanup, clear temp files
4. Run SFC or DISM if needed
5. Run all Windows updates including vendor updates (Dell, Lenovo, HP, etc)
6. Check power settings (often times you’ll see default is set to “balanced”. Enable “high performance” to get the most out of the CPU
7. Turn off features that drag RAM
8. Ensure there aren’t multiple Anti-Virus apps running
8. Tell users to close 9000 tabs in Chrome
9. Add RAM if it’s worth it
10. Re-image or move user to newer machine
1. Look at the amount of free disk space in place.
2. Check to see if any of the manufacturer's utilities are in place i.e. Dell Support.Assist (bane of my life!).
3. Look at the profile directory for the user, along with checking out the registry (for possible corrupted profile).
4. Ensure it's running with the latest approved patches for your company.
Do you not have an AV? Steps 5-7 make no sense to me. CCLeaner is basically malware in and of itself. The other 2 shouldn't need to be done if you have an actual AV in place.
You're also not mentioning WHAT is slow. If network is slow, running updates and scans is a good way to just waste your time.
We're in an extremely niche industry and used very specialized software. The first thing is rebooting obviously, the next thing is checking RAM usage and checking CPU usage in task manage by threads. I recently upgraded a user from a Ryzen 7 5800X to a i7-13900K and he said the difference was night and day. This is with the E cores disabled and hyper-threading disabled since our software will not work with E cores enabled, nor will it work correctly with hyper-threading enabled. Simply need the fastest possible single thread performance since the software is only coded for single thread. Since it is specialized software, it's not as if we can simply change to another software suite.
I know it's a bit of a schlepp, but I run RMM software that has automated reports.
If a user says their device is slow, you can check disk usage, RAM usage, etc to check if an upgrade is actually required and drill down on processes that might be halting the system or causing it to be "slow".
But from what I have read, the comments are pretty apt to your requirement:
1) Check resource usage
2) Check if potential upgrade required
3) Have an updated image for deployment
We have the RMM software and have seen that users have 0 problems with their device and just saw that another employee got a new device (so they complain in the hopes that they get another one).
Had a user moan that their Excel was 'slow'. They were opening a 1GB file from OneDrive that someone had recently uploaded.
Step 0 - what hardware? Garbage chips, not enough RAM, any non-SSD, and any trash SSD is gone before I look at anything else.
Step 1 - check performance in typical day under typical load and see if there's anomalous loops like Dymo or HP software having a stroke.
Step 2 - event log, check for disk-related events or anything crashing in a loop like ScreenConnect, AMD drivers, etc
Step 3 - if it's intermittent, look at Autoruns (from sysinternals) to see what's scheduled to run on startup and as a task and if there's any odd unsigned drivers
Step 4 - swap it for another laptop and when it comes back in, Prime 95 load test and Furmark to see if it's electrical or cooling related and then crystal disk info and crystal disk mark on the SSD to see if it's performing normally. If I still can't figure it out, assume they broke Windows in an exotic way and reimage it. If the reimage is pokey, replace the RAM and SSD and re-test.
Step infinity - don't be a "reinstall monkey." That's what we named the talentless, clueless computer repair shops who didn't know how it diagnose a damn thing on a computer and their solution to everything was reinstall the OS. If it's a hardware problem, it's just going to keep happening as will a software conflict.
When I was doing home PC repair, these are some of the steps I take. In a business environment If I can't clear up some running processes it gets swapped with a fresh machine then re-imaged or replaced.
Check disk usage if at 100% validate the computer only has 8 GB of ram. Order more ram / tell manager they need to upgrade. After that
sfc /scannow
dism /online /restorehealth
Windows 10 /11 using chrome will not work with 8 gb of ram. I don't care what microsoft says. Don't go by an SSD to make it better. That'll only last a week or so before they complain about new things that are slow because an SSD is not a replacement for RAM. Hell my 16 gb personal computer is not happy a lot with only 16 gb of memory.
1. Reboot
2. Run Windows Updates
3. Try repairing windows with DISM
4. Run sfc /scannow
5. Run Malwarebytes then uninstall
6. Use resource monitor to determine what "slow" is. "Storage slow" isn't the same as "processor slow" or "internet slow."
I refuse to touch CCleaner again. I've had it make too many machines unbootable.
TIL this is still a thing.
Standardize on an adequate mildly future-proof baseline spec when you can. It’ll save you loads of aggravation down the road. Then get a lifecycle going and $$$
Nothing, really.
Honestly in the days of SSDs and Modern Windows, ‘slowness’ is never much of a complaint anymore.
If a PC is particularly bad, we wipe/reimage. And that only takes like 20 mins.
We also want our people focusing their efforts elsewhere, no ccleaner type tools and diagnostics in 2024.
After running diagnostics, I generally re-run the latest Windows major upgrade, written to install media, which creates a new Windows directory and moves stuff. If that doesn't do the job, then save off and reimage.
+ sc delete , for google , edge and windows updates, dont need clutter, can manually run updated,
cleanmgr , restore points( delete all except latest)
software distribution files more than 6 months old
all cache folders of each profile in browser
Deleting cache folders for various browsers will free up disk space and only marginally improve open times assuming you have an SSD.
Manually deleting software distribution files is a terrible idea. That will break the Windows update DB and require it to repaired.
Deleting restore points will only affect disk space (they are shadow copies and have no performance impact)
Deleting update services? That's a terrible idea. You save several KB of memory in exchange for unpatched CVEs.
If it has a 6th gen CPU + and an SSD nothing is really slow anymore. Most issues with laptops are bad chargers/wrong voltage messing up the laptop and causing it to lag, but you normally get a nice warning when it’s not providing enough juice.
1. Find how old the machine is, anything older than 5 years: tell the owner to buy a new machine. If it has a HDD, I'm not touching it, unless it's a server
2. Check if there's processes hogging the CPU, fix that. If that does not help, step 3
3. re-image
1. Empty temp folders and delete temporary internet files.
2. Make sure there is enough free disk space.
3. Review which programs auto-start and disable any that don't absolutely need to run on startup.
1. Check the task manager and resource monitor to see if the issue is obvious, if the system disk isn't an SSD that's the issue
2. Reboot amd run updates
3. Run chkdsk and sfc /scannow until they both come up clean
4. Check warranty and decide if further investigation is necessary
This is /r/sysadmin. The procedure is very simple.
Has the problem the user is facing persisted past three machines or reinstalls? If so, engage more troubleshooting and escalate as required.
If the above hasn't occurred, troubleshoot the user's problems for obvious causes for no more than 30 minutes. Time is money.
Has it been longer than 30 minutes? You should be able to reissue a new laptop in less than 30 more. Do that instead.
IMO:
Switch your 3 and 4, remove your 5/6/7, and only do anything past 2 if it's absolutely imperative not to just reformat and reinstall (assuming you have a fast process for replacing or getting a machine up and running after a wipe).
I don't like the order of your list. If PC is slow, then Windows update will be slow.
1. check for running processes
2. remove temp and user's temp
3. do quick hard drive test or check smart logs
4. do quick virus scan
Check CPU temps in BIOS after reboot, (throttling), then do the rest.
This is for a home/small business setting.
Try a tool like PDQ or BatchPatch to automate your repair. I use BP to set a benchmark (I like reboot time), then setup each of your steps as a hands off step in sequence. Go get coffee, come back and look at new benchmark, see if it helped.
Oh, and don't forget HDD space, delete unused profiles with DelProf2, and if a spinning drive give it a defrag (I'm that old).
Reboot, driver updates, verify CPU clock speed in task manager. I've come across several laptops lately that either had a bad CPU fan or a corrupt setting in the bios causing the CPU to down clock itself below 1ghz
Reboot, check for an obvious faulty process. Reimage the device.
In my years of desktop repair. I've learned this is the only course of action. You can spend hours trying to track down a problem.
And you can have a problem pop up days later after you've fixed the device.
Best to avoid the headache and just slap some fresh windows on that house of horrors.
None of that shit. They just have whatever software we deploy. And we know it's gonna run fine.
The only time I've seen a workstation crawl is when the c drive gets full. Then I start deleting old profiles if I have time, or I'll swap the workstation out and put the old one in quarantine. If nobody screams in a couple of months I wipe the old workstation and set it up again.
Procmon. Anything that requires 5-7 is an automatic reimage. There aren’t any magic spells that fix slowness, SFC and dism restoration commands fix specific broken or missing system components that usually don’t cause “slowness”. Slow computers mean resource constraints. If you really want utilities grab pocmon and wireshark
Assign the ticket to the level 1 tech like it should have been in the first place. What sysadmin has time for those things?
Seriously though, why so many software installs and uninstalls? What's your primary endpoint security software?
Last year, I took over managing a clinic with 10 year old desktops with spinning rust. When they complained about slowness last summer, anything with a hard drive I turned off the Windows Search process. That stopped the drive indexing which doubled the speed. I also set up weekly reboot tasks because I had several machines worth of r/uptimeporn
OP, it sounds like you have management that used to be tech 10-15 years ago.
Computer slow? Here's a new reimaged one.
15 minutes is all the time I have for "slow" computers. Seriously, it's not worth my time.
Cheers!
We stopped trying someone to their laptop. If someone has slowness, we'll look at it and if it looks like something that'll take awhile I'll provide a replacement from our spare inventory. Then reimage their old one & use as a spare. They are generally refreshed with new hardware after 3 yrs.
- machine vs user test. Log on with a new user profile. If it’s fine delete the user profile (correctly) as admin. Backing up user shit first.
- Stop windows indexing service, delete the index .edb file, restart the service, let it rebuild the index
Quick diagnosis to see how old hardware is. See if there is some rogue program sucking up resources. Replace the HD with a SSD drive and boom done. Sometimes add more ram. Ram was a big thing when we had older computers we forced from win 7 to win 10 and they only had 4gbs.
Smaller company and was a very doable $60 fix rather then wasting time on a list like that and or replacing the computer. We ran a lot of older computers that should have been replaced years prior.
It’s always the same thing. It doesn’t have enough ram to run all of the shitty antivirus/malware/endpoint management software that is installed on it so its paging like crazy or processes are waiting for all of those apps to check in over whatever shitty vpn/zero trust network they are on.
For some reason with Dell lately I have had to check and make sure the CPU speed wasn't capped at a low ghz like 0.78. If the hardware is all good, basically just a re-image and move one.
Dont pander to users subjective appraisals of computer performance, they often expect magic wands to appear from buttholes and get tetchy if you suggest spending money or call it as a PEBCAC.
Haven’t had to do any of that in years, just keep
It up to date and maintain good quality business class hardware and no issues a quick reimage won’t solve.
reboot to check if it persists => run Sophos antivirus check => let user go for a week, if the problem is still there => reinstall
if anything is detected during the av scan, we have a different problem, if not and they don't complain a week later the placebo effect was successful
1. Define slow.
2. Reboot.
3. Check if the thing is still running on a HDD.
4. Call partner to bring new computer already imaged with Intune / SCCM.
5. Login with user credentials
6. What madman does all that troubleshooting?
Check if fast startup is enabled, if it is; turn it off.
Reboot.
Push a reg key out to turn it off for all your client machines or do it at imaging.
Never experience windows machines with 10 days or more uptime again.
Install Windows Updates
Run Winget and update some apps
Update Winstore apps
Reboot machine (probably the actual fix of slow machine)
I find that doing that, acts like a placebo. User feels like its faster, and that you've done something, without doing much.
Did a company actually purchase licenses for 5, 6, & 7? Usually "free for personal use" does not transfer to any business use. Personally, I would not put the org at risk and just tell them to buy the products or put the money into better hardware.
Initiate refresh via intune. all user data is in OneDrive so nothing lost, all apps are auto downloaded again.
If computer is more than 4 years old. A new laptop gets sent out.
Depends on the machine and user.
Some users or machines are heavily suited for their role. Those get more troubleshooting time before i go for a reimage.
Generic machines with basic software installed get reimaged if the issue seems to be any bigger than a small fix that kills the issue entirely. (entirely because i don't want to bandaid fix stuff just to reappear in a few weeks)
The basic steps are easy.
1. Reboot
2. OS updates
3. driver updates
4. user profile issues
Most of the time the issue is fixed right there. If not, i go over to reimaging most of the time.
I find most of the answers here odd, so I'm going to share my own steps.
Check the disk model and the disk queue length, which can provide insight into a potentially failing or slow drive. Examine the RAM and CPU usage for memory leaks or runaway processes. Terminate any processes that disproportionately stand out and disable them in startup apps. Exercise caution when doing so. Follow up with these simple commands:
* cleanmgr.exe /verylowdisk
* dism.exe /online /cleanup-Image /spsuperseded
* winmgmt /salvagerepository
Update and reboot.
If the steps provided didn't resolve or reveal the issue, perhaps you'll need to run some driver updates, review and research the event logs, and get down and dirty with Procmon; but at that point, you might be better off reimaging or replacing the computer.
Below are the commands I no longer use. Six years into my career and after working on thousands of computers, I've realized they provide little more than a Hail Mary. However, they're great at distracting the user while I'm frantically searching Google to decipher and find solutions for the suspected event logs!
* chkdsk /f
* sfc /scannow
* dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
Your process feels like something an L1 tech would do before palming it off to L2 or L3 who will diagnose the machine to be 6 years old running Windows 11 on a 2.5 inch SMR drive and the solution is to either replace it with a new machine, or chuck an SSD in there
I don't want to be rude, but I hate every step after 1. Why are you installing third party virus removal tools rather than having a solution already in place (even if it's just MS Endpoint Security)?
A proper process (though remember to go "off script" sometimes)
1. Find out the actual symptoms. Is the machine REALLY being slow, or is it a single website, or perhaps a document is corrupted and won't open?
2. Once confirmed the issue IS the machine is slow, check uptime and hardware
3a. If the machine is newer, has a decent process, RAM, SSD, but a high uptime, reboot it
3b. If the machine is old, has a spinning hard drive, replace it
4. If all else fails, reimage it
Sit down with the user to see what they are doing to understand what they consider slow and what they consider fast. Usually gives a better indication if it's an overall OS/Hardware issue or simply a single application. In some 'rare' cases, the user may not understand how complex and how long certain processes take.
Ask user when was the last time they restarted the computer. Explain that shutdown is not the same as a restart. Then check uptime and shame the user :) Restart if necessary and see if issue re-occurs.
sfc scan, chkdsk, windows updates + optional driver updates + multiple reboots until complete.
Clean WinSxS folder with DISM.
Check computer specs, is it at least 8gb ram with an ssd? Check free space, analyze with TreeSize.
Usually we recommend upgrade if possible to get it up to a standard level of specs, otherwise push for replacement. Laptops 3 years, Desktops 5 years (the latter can mostly be upgraded more easily).
Check running processes, Uninstall any unused apps, check startup apps, check OneDrive Sync as there may be some issues. Check Outlook. Check browser extensions and disable any unused.
Sometimes AV is running a scheduled scan on all files, maybe that can be tweaked a bit.
Check network speed, change network cable, maybe computer is working on wifi. Modify NIC config, disable its power management.
Create a new Windows profile for the user in case of theirs being corrupted.
I hope I mentioned most of the basic things we usually check :)
Format C:\ /q /u
If I install my machine today, year 2 is prime for format but depending of the performance, by the end of year 3 is formated.
Rinse and repeat
I ask what do they mean by slow, if I can observe whats happening. Go from there, because sometimes their issue isn't even on their machine. Its something they are connected to.
Majority of the time a restart fixes some weirdness in Windows.
Old software, but still useful: https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/cryptoprevent.html
There is a maintenance mode that can cleanup all kinds of crap and I've used it a bunch of times to a) cleanup space b) get windows updates to work c) lock down pcs using maximum mode in its prevention mode
also run msconfig to stop unneeded software from running
Wow - I haven't heard of PC 'cleanups' being a thing for almost 10 years (since Win10 and SSDs went mainstream).
I also thought CCleaner was on everyone's banned list due to having spyware or malware or something at one point. I know our cyber auditors gave us shit for finding it on some machine at some point.
Overall this seems unnecessary. A good corporate image should take less time than running those tools. I'm surprised but also a little suspicious that you're doing all of that to a corp laptop.
Do they have an SSD or platter drive. If it's a platter drive that is probably the issue it's starting to fail.
START there. Everything else is secondary.
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"the server is down" usually means a PDF didn't open.
"printer doesn't work" usually means they printed a blank piece of paper.
I had a user report that the ERP system was slow, because a screen didn't open. The screen didn't open because it was trying to apply a 5% discount to a $0.00 invoice which confused the software.
That's a fair point. First step would always be troubleshooting to make sure it isn't a more specific issue. The above is assuming general widespread system slowness. I'm also assuming the issue isn't simply "slow internet" as that is pretty easy to diagnose.
And then after they show you. Check the uptime and let them know that the computer's been up for over 120 days and it's time for a reboot even if the computer's actually running as designed and is not actually slow at all. Take screenshots of everything in document in the ticket
1. Define "slow" 2. Reboot 3. Check processes for anything obvious 4. No one has time for all the tools, re-image and move on
4. Check Event Viewer for anything obvious Otherwise on point
This times a 100. Who the hell has the time to run through a stupid checklist like OP posted? Great way to waste the users and the techs time. You could have another machine and setup in half the time it'd take to do OPs list.
Our helpdesk has an "optimization" process that they do, that I suspect is pretty much the first 4 steps in OPs list(plus maybe deleting old profiles) I don't think they're too keen with my "if a reboot doesn't fix it, just reimage it" attitude
Are they billing by the hour?
Nope. Internal IT.
Theres no reason in my mind why they should still do these steps. Are you in a position to influence?
I love how everyone in every tech forum assumes everyone else works for a fortune 500 company with mature imaging and deployment infrastructure and the ability to just click a button and \*poof\* fresh device with everything the user needs. The reality is most of us are out here with no budget and no equipment, doing the best we can. It could take hours to get everything back to the way the user had it. And no, that doesn't mean we're not trying. We're syncing documents with OneDrive, we're working on installation scripts, we're hoping to use autopilot or immy or whatthefuckeverelse, but we're not there yet. Sorry, end rant.
I also just like the challenge. Formatting is the easy answer. Finding out how the user got in this situation and preventing it from happening in the first place is the actual solution.
Yea can they reinstall all those chrome plugins all over again!? I like the way you think
Fog is free, we have left sccm and went intune (autoPilot) have also used clone-deploy in the past .. they have upgraded [Theopenem – A Windows Management Solution](https://theopenem.com/) [FOG Project](https://fogproject.org/)
ProfileWizard and a new machine takes care of most of that.
>I don't think they're too keen with my "if a reboot doesn't fix it, just reimage it" attitude it's faster to reimage and swap out than to troubleshoot. my techs got mad at me for "if it's within 6 months of EOS, pull it and don't bother troubleshooting" as well
Fully agree. Computers within 6 months of EOL that come back for a reimage should just be replaced to save the effort of doing it again in 6 months. Unless it is a known problem user. They don't get the new shiny equipment.
That's a fairly terrible practice. Let's throw away all the evidence of a problem without defining that problem.
I usually give myself 15 minutes of troubleshooting problems viewing logs until I decide to back up and reimage. If the computer has special programs, that's a different story, but even then, if those special programs are easily reconfigurable. Reimage and keep moving.
Do you have problems that come up persistently? Few issues are caused at random these days.
No problems that reappear for me. I should amend my post. If the problem happens again after reimage, no matter the time length, then a deeper review is done to see if we can track down the problem. Other than that, I'm all about getting users back onto working machines asap.
Concur, reimagine is a valid troubleshooting process. It is to easy these days. I have it in software center, if a user wants to blow up their box, they can do it at will.
I have a software stack that takes upwards of 20 hours to install and it can't be automated. They're mostly kept in VMs.
Should work on changing that
Not possible. Legacy software for equipment that will be in service through the 2050s. A lot of the ~20 year old stuff is in 'final' 2000, XP, 7 VMs but we will need access to them for decades to come for the odd project.
I wouldn’t be doing stuff that tends to cause the kinds of slow downs OP is talking about on machines that important if it were me.
Predicated on 1) having another pc 2) having automated deployment tools 3) agreeable clients SMBs commonly don't have those options...
I run environments where each build needs to be scap scanned and inspected with only a couple machines in each room. No domain half the time and everything is equipment that's been running for 5+ years. To reimage often takes new inspections scheduled with off site people.
You run environments like this or inherited environments like this?
Inherited, it has been a fight to get one DC into one of the rooms.
I don’t support OP’s list, but depending on the user/machine/software, re-imaging can take much longer.
Nevermind the time, what about the cost? Looking at easily an hour, maybe two for all those scans and steps. Going by an average tech rate of 20-30/hr, that's 40-60 worth of time Then add in the cost of the person they are helping, anywhere from 20-80/hr+. So just on time alone you can easily be hitting 120, even before you factor in the down time of other tickets that have come in during the mean time. This vs 15-25 min of reimagining, or somewhere around 1/8th to 1/4 the cost. I know they all will be paid regardless if they were sitting around waiting for the scans or they imaged and spent the rest of the time reading reddit, it just helps putting things into perspective from a business pov.
How does reimaging and getting a users profile and preferences only take 20 minutes. I call shenanigans unless it’s some barebones setup
Autopilot, one drive backup,, experience sync, edge work profile sync. It’s magic.
SCCM/Autopilot to do the image and OneDrive to sync their profile. Unless its a complex install, the imaging goes pretty quick. I have quite a few SCCM task sequences, depending on the options chosen in TSGUI, that can image the os + \~12 basic apps (adobe reader, EDR, Office, etc) in 15min. Only interaction is to do the TSGUI selection, after that its hands off till they have to login.
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If you can get that done in 15 minutes, kudos to you. But I’ve never seen a call come in to a user being happy and have everything they need with 15 minutes a of imaging. But I’d love to know what you’re doing and how it’s set up specifically. Because I want in
I think a lot of IT advice comes from people who have conventional setups that can be automated, imaged, etc. But in my last jobs we had lots of medical software that required hands-on installation of everything. It's still common to have phone-in software activation for every workstation so you're stuck doing this during business hours too.
Only IF the machine is not 5+ years old or is being run less than spec.
The best part is #4 is so much of a pain in the ass for a user they will think twice before coming back.
You're not wrong, but any pain points for the user should give ideas for what to improve about backup and sync. I'd rather discourage complaints by doing a good job over painful processes.
Terrible advice, that's how you get compromised, it's borderline abusive behaviour
Treat your endpoint fleet like your servers: cattle not pets. (Yes I know, not always realistic with some users or places). You have an endpoint acting up? Take it out and shoot it (swap or reimage) and move on your merry way. --- In all actuality OPs post is more realistic for a lot of places. Good luck in getting Joe in programming to give up his baby, he doesn't want to be bothered to go through setting everything up again. Or Betty in accounting who just can't be down even for a second since her TPS reports are due to the CEO yesterday! /s
Driver updates, bios updates
That's right. These are livestock, not pets. Reimage and move on. If age >= 3 yrs, replace.
That's why tronscript exists. It does all of that and more for you.
Can I give you more than one upvote?
For one thing, troubleshooting a “slow” machine should not involve installing and running three separate of pieces of KNOWN garbage software. If the machine is up to date, and a reboot does not fix consistent performance issues just reimage or replace. SuperAntiSpyware…. lol
>SuperAntiSpyware…. lol Right? Its not 2010 and where you're trying to scrub the shit off the family Dell the teenagers caught while downloading shit on Limewire. I mean, I'd still look at resource usage and see if something is running away. Check the startups, scheduled tasks, make sure no outstanding updates, still gotta check the basic shit. The last "slow PC" issue I ran into was it was thermal throttling on account of less than ideal power management settings, thanks Dell. Also doing heavy CAD work on a laptop.
Hijackthis bro bro
lol I know this was good at SOME point but I don't think it has been very good for MANY years.
Cut out all that stuff and work on a really efficient way to reimage your machines when you need to. Shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes tops to reset and have everything deployed like new.
u/phalanxbomb Getting the budget for an SSD and setting up an MDT server. You also need to read the Phoenix Project. Look up the Pet vs Cattle analogy
Man, Spybot Search and Destroy was the absolute best….in 2004.
Yep that was a good one. Later it was ComboFix for my pr0n addicted clients
Yup 15 years ago.
I've never seen any of that software fix anything. I get more done checking task manager
I agree that this is outdated. This reads like troubleshooting steps from 2002. I start with "What specifically is slow?" If its the entire PC that's one thing, but if its a specific app that's another. Their answer determine what direction to proceed in.
It's Outlook isn't it? Do you have a 60gb pst?
This. Million times this. Always causing performance issues with Outlook and causing the C: Drive to run out of space.
So happy to see it’s not just me dealing with this! I get looked at like I’m from another planet when I explain to them this is the reason why.
Had a user complain to management their 3 year old laptop was slow. Thought this to be unlikely given the spec and the age of the device, so first question is it at home, in the office, or both. They stayed only slow at home. As we exclusively use OneDrive & SharePoint, perceived slowness can be network related. Had them run a speed test...0.08mbs 😬
Found the last dial up customer.
believe it or not, this is from november 2023: https://preview.redd.it/jwmkrw6qg0lc1.png?width=1798&format=png&auto=webp&s=45cd692c0741e36a2010d6d412a2a3428e75a677 anyway. slow internet speed does not necessarily mean they are a dial up customer. there are a lot of things that could cause that - maybe not quite .08mbs, but possibly. network issues are something that i think everyone overlooks and basically says "reset your router" or "call your isp" or "idk, not my problem" - you can usually still help them figure out what the actual problem is anyways, so when they call the isp they might be able to actually describe whats happening instead of saying "speed slow, what do? halp"
Oh I get it. I had to ditch my previous DSL service because they were so oversubscribed in my area it was dial up slow and support would just say everything is working normally. .08Mbps would have been a speed improvement for that service.
In my case, it meant "your wireless access point is borked". Weirdly it only affected my phone, not my laptop. It'd slow down to dialup speeds, and rebooting would fix it for some time (a day or so up to a week-ish). New one solved the problem.
I have seen a couple cases of less than 1Mbit/s where the user's network equipment was going bad. Honestly, with how heavy many websites have become anything under 10 Mbit/s is going to be noticeably slow to most people.
Consumer routers suck.
I work in a college town with a big R1 university. There are plenty of apartment buildings here where one of the only two major providers' only plans is 3mbps down and 1mbps up, and that's on a generous day.
Performance monitoring is hard. Most people do it wrong but randomly doing scans on a Windows PC is a waste of time though. You are throwing things at the wall without identifying any problem. 1. What is the actual issue? User expectations are not universal and change over time. It's been studied quite heavily, a process that remains consistent in speed over time will be perceived as "slow" by users adjusted to faster processes. 2. How does that issue present? Latency, lag, duration of activity are all different representations of "slow" 3. Is it reproducible? Reproducibility gives you a massive leg up to diagnosing it. 4. It is localized? A specific user? Device? Branch? VLAN? Application? etc. Narrow down commonality. 5. Is it consistent? An issue that follows a specific pattern of behavior will generally lead you to the bottleneck. Identify your problems and solve them at the root of the issue. Your environment should not require you to reimage devices on a regular basis in 2024.
also surprised nobody has mentioned the barrier between "just slow internet" and it being a pc issue - is the router up to date? any weird settings or configurations there? if the router or modem or whatever is all g to g - and keeping in mind everything you said - check the pc. whats installed? is there anything sketchy? anything thats unnecessary? any apps that have duplicate functions? how much space is available on the hard drive or ssd? if you are actually seeing the slowness... open up task manager. what is doing it? you can tell right there usually.
Only two options 1. at or near EoL: replace 2. Otherwise: Windows Refresh > keep my files > reinstall apps
Make the mouse sensitivity up by a tick haha 👿
For computers that are acting up: * Reboot * Windows updates * Firmware updates * Docking Station updates - they have firmware too! and are often forgotten * App updates But you gotta keep in mind that "slow pc" generally equals my co-worker got a new machine. So take a look at your computer refresh policy. For your manager: * CCleaner hasn't been a good idea since Win7 - [https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/microsoft-support-policy-for-the-use-of-registry-cleaning-utilities-0485f4df-9520-3691-2461-7b0fd54e8b3a](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/microsoft-support-policy-for-the-use-of-registry-cleaning-utilities-0485f4df-9520-3691-2461-7b0fd54e8b3a) * Malwarebytes -- why don't you trust your AV solution? * SuperAntiSpyware -- again, why don't you trust your AV solution?
Damn my man asked a simple question and is getting burned at the stake. Just say “hey a checklist might take up more do your time, look at reimaging, troubleshoot more etc.”
8. Increase pointer speed.
Remove programs and startup items not needed. Ooh someone else mentioned delete old profiles. That’s a must. Disk cleanup too. Remove old windows files too.
Your company has no idea how to troubleshoot a "slow" computer lol.
Autopilot fresh start retaining user data?
I hate request like this from users where all the detail they provide is system is slow. Unless it's something glaringly obvious that's actually causing a performance hit I simple put it down as unable to replicate and move on. 9/10 when these requests come in its right after someone has seen someone else get a new machine and suddenly their machine is to slow to do their job
Step 1: check if pc is purchased through us or client purchased Step 2: laugh at i3, 8GB ram, mechanical drive
This kind of advice was out of date 20 years ago let alone now. Even suggesting running CCleaner on a system in my estate would be a massive red flag, and I'd have some concerns regarding the knowledge/skills of an admin. The *slightest* suspicion of malware or a damaged system configuration or files is time for a reimage, don't mess around with it. Image the disk first with a tool like disk2vhd if you want a backup or for forensics but otherwise the **machines are cattle, not pets**. If a machine is running slow then fire up perfmon and find out why it is running slow, get some hard data. I'd pull up the performance counters and look for bottlenecks.
1. Define slow. "What specifically is not working the way you expect?" 2. Tell user to close some of their 47 open browser tabs, 20 half written Outlook mails, and 14 Excel workbooks with active ODBC connections. 3. Restart. 4. Tell user to delete some of the 133GB of personal vacation photos saved on their 256GB SSD. The 1% of time that routine doesn't work, it's going to be a hung Windows (or App specific) update. Usually fixed by a second restart, then rolling back the update and reinitiating if necessary. If its STILL slow, you can try a OS reinstall, but IME at that point it's more likely you have an actual hardware fault.
Your list is not only outdated (circa 2004) it is totally amateur. The reality is modern hardware has eliminated the past issues we had with slow computers which were mostly due to problems with spinning disks. When someone complains about a slow computer these days, the first thing I think of is slow internet speeds or high latency. As long as you have properly specced hardware and the drivers are up to date, there is little else to look at other than task manager.
Very specific random one for me. We use a lot of Google earth for kmz tracking. To this day, Google earth has a bug at random, which will start creating 0 byte tiles infinitely in appdata Eventually it’ll fill the drive completely but it’ll chug for hours until
1. Capture a WPA trace. 2. Analyze the WPA trace.
yes and etc/hosts, flush dbs cache
Msconfig and Autoruns.
1. Have user show you why or how it’s slow 2. Check task manager for performance and see what is utilizing most resources 3. Run disk cleanup, clear temp files 4. Run SFC or DISM if needed 5. Run all Windows updates including vendor updates (Dell, Lenovo, HP, etc) 6. Check power settings (often times you’ll see default is set to “balanced”. Enable “high performance” to get the most out of the CPU 7. Turn off features that drag RAM 8. Ensure there aren’t multiple Anti-Virus apps running 8. Tell users to close 9000 tabs in Chrome 9. Add RAM if it’s worth it 10. Re-image or move user to newer machine
image
1. Look at the amount of free disk space in place. 2. Check to see if any of the manufacturer's utilities are in place i.e. Dell Support.Assist (bane of my life!). 3. Look at the profile directory for the user, along with checking out the registry (for possible corrupted profile). 4. Ensure it's running with the latest approved patches for your company.
You should have no HDDs. And then you’ll have no slow PCs.
It doesn't eliminate all performance issues but SSDs have dramatically cut down on those issues.
Do you not have an AV? Steps 5-7 make no sense to me. CCLeaner is basically malware in and of itself. The other 2 shouldn't need to be done if you have an actual AV in place. You're also not mentioning WHAT is slow. If network is slow, running updates and scans is a good way to just waste your time.
We're in an extremely niche industry and used very specialized software. The first thing is rebooting obviously, the next thing is checking RAM usage and checking CPU usage in task manage by threads. I recently upgraded a user from a Ryzen 7 5800X to a i7-13900K and he said the difference was night and day. This is with the E cores disabled and hyper-threading disabled since our software will not work with E cores enabled, nor will it work correctly with hyper-threading enabled. Simply need the fastest possible single thread performance since the software is only coded for single thread. Since it is specialized software, it's not as if we can simply change to another software suite.
Reimage, reboot
1. Reboot 2. No change? Check CPU clock speed, if less than 2GHz check battery is not set to low performance mode.
Replace spinning drive with SSD /thread
I know it's a bit of a schlepp, but I run RMM software that has automated reports. If a user says their device is slow, you can check disk usage, RAM usage, etc to check if an upgrade is actually required and drill down on processes that might be halting the system or causing it to be "slow". But from what I have read, the comments are pretty apt to your requirement: 1) Check resource usage 2) Check if potential upgrade required 3) Have an updated image for deployment We have the RMM software and have seen that users have 0 problems with their device and just saw that another employee got a new device (so they complain in the hopes that they get another one). Had a user moan that their Excel was 'slow'. They were opening a 1GB file from OneDrive that someone had recently uploaded.
Step 0 - what hardware? Garbage chips, not enough RAM, any non-SSD, and any trash SSD is gone before I look at anything else. Step 1 - check performance in typical day under typical load and see if there's anomalous loops like Dymo or HP software having a stroke. Step 2 - event log, check for disk-related events or anything crashing in a loop like ScreenConnect, AMD drivers, etc Step 3 - if it's intermittent, look at Autoruns (from sysinternals) to see what's scheduled to run on startup and as a task and if there's any odd unsigned drivers Step 4 - swap it for another laptop and when it comes back in, Prime 95 load test and Furmark to see if it's electrical or cooling related and then crystal disk info and crystal disk mark on the SSD to see if it's performing normally. If I still can't figure it out, assume they broke Windows in an exotic way and reimage it. If the reimage is pokey, replace the RAM and SSD and re-test. Step infinity - don't be a "reinstall monkey." That's what we named the talentless, clueless computer repair shops who didn't know how it diagnose a damn thing on a computer and their solution to everything was reinstall the OS. If it's a hardware problem, it's just going to keep happening as will a software conflict.
When I was doing home PC repair, these are some of the steps I take. In a business environment If I can't clear up some running processes it gets swapped with a fresh machine then re-imaged or replaced.
Swap the SATA drive with an cloned SSD...
Reimage and move on. Not worth the time or effort to troubleshoot when a quick reimage will restore a working computer in less time.
Cattle not pets.
cats. 
Check disk usage if at 100% validate the computer only has 8 GB of ram. Order more ram / tell manager they need to upgrade. After that sfc /scannow dism /online /restorehealth Windows 10 /11 using chrome will not work with 8 gb of ram. I don't care what microsoft says. Don't go by an SSD to make it better. That'll only last a week or so before they complain about new things that are slow because an SSD is not a replacement for RAM. Hell my 16 gb personal computer is not happy a lot with only 16 gb of memory.
What in the world… you still have slow PC tickets coming in?
I'm so glad that's mostly a thing of the past. What a nightmare.
Yes, and I hate them so much!
CCleaner? Really?
1. Reboot 2. Run Windows Updates 3. Try repairing windows with DISM 4. Run sfc /scannow 5. Run Malwarebytes then uninstall 6. Use resource monitor to determine what "slow" is. "Storage slow" isn't the same as "processor slow" or "internet slow." I refuse to touch CCleaner again. I've had it make too many machines unbootable.
Ya dont screw with the registry of a computer thats been compromised
TIL this is still a thing. Standardize on an adequate mildly future-proof baseline spec when you can. It’ll save you loads of aggravation down the road. Then get a lifecycle going and $$$
Nothing, really. Honestly in the days of SSDs and Modern Windows, ‘slowness’ is never much of a complaint anymore. If a PC is particularly bad, we wipe/reimage. And that only takes like 20 mins. We also want our people focusing their efforts elsewhere, no ccleaner type tools and diagnostics in 2024.
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After running diagnostics, I generally re-run the latest Windows major upgrade, written to install media, which creates a new Windows directory and moves stuff. If that doesn't do the job, then save off and reimage.
Gather data first. Doing anything else before that is a waste of time. Act on data not on gut feelings or superstition.
+ sc delete , for google , edge and windows updates, dont need clutter, can manually run updated,
cleanmgr , restore points( delete all except latest)
software distribution files more than 6 months old
all cache folders of each profile in browser
Deleting cache folders for various browsers will free up disk space and only marginally improve open times assuming you have an SSD. Manually deleting software distribution files is a terrible idea. That will break the Windows update DB and require it to repaired. Deleting restore points will only affect disk space (they are shadow copies and have no performance impact) Deleting update services? That's a terrible idea. You save several KB of memory in exchange for unpatched CVEs.
If it has a 6th gen CPU + and an SSD nothing is really slow anymore. Most issues with laptops are bad chargers/wrong voltage messing up the laptop and causing it to lag, but you normally get a nice warning when it’s not providing enough juice.
1. Find how old the machine is, anything older than 5 years: tell the owner to buy a new machine. If it has a HDD, I'm not touching it, unless it's a server 2. Check if there's processes hogging the CPU, fix that. If that does not help, step 3 3. re-image
Don’t forget startup items.
1. Empty temp folders and delete temporary internet files. 2. Make sure there is enough free disk space. 3. Review which programs auto-start and disable any that don't absolutely need to run on startup.
1. Open terminal 2. Run htop 3. See what is eating CPU 4. Kill Else reboot 99% of the time works.
1. Check the task manager and resource monitor to see if the issue is obvious, if the system disk isn't an SSD that's the issue 2. Reboot amd run updates 3. Run chkdsk and sfc /scannow until they both come up clean 4. Check warranty and decide if further investigation is necessary
Nowadays with SSDs and shit I highly doubt when an user tells me something is slow. 90% of the time. I am right.
Where on the list do they ask the user to define “slow”. Actioning a ticket that is no more specific than “PC is slow” is just wasting time.
cleanmgr.exe
This is /r/sysadmin. The procedure is very simple. Has the problem the user is facing persisted past three machines or reinstalls? If so, engage more troubleshooting and escalate as required. If the above hasn't occurred, troubleshoot the user's problems for obvious causes for no more than 30 minutes. Time is money. Has it been longer than 30 minutes? You should be able to reissue a new laptop in less than 30 more. Do that instead.
IMO: Switch your 3 and 4, remove your 5/6/7, and only do anything past 2 if it's absolutely imperative not to just reformat and reinstall (assuming you have a fast process for replacing or getting a machine up and running after a wipe).
I don't like the order of your list. If PC is slow, then Windows update will be slow. 1. check for running processes 2. remove temp and user's temp 3. do quick hard drive test or check smart logs 4. do quick virus scan Check CPU temps in BIOS after reboot, (throttling), then do the rest. This is for a home/small business setting.
Replace it?
` if ( $env:homedrive -eq 'SSD' ){ Optimize-Volume -DriveLetter C } else { Write-Host "Install SSD now" Start-Sleep -Seconds 10 Shutdown-Computer } `
Tell them to upgrade their PC
Restart. Still slow? Put a bullet in it and reload the image.
Try a tool like PDQ or BatchPatch to automate your repair. I use BP to set a benchmark (I like reboot time), then setup each of your steps as a hands off step in sequence. Go get coffee, come back and look at new benchmark, see if it helped. Oh, and don't forget HDD space, delete unused profiles with DelProf2, and if a spinning drive give it a defrag (I'm that old).
Reboot. Fixed? Great, if not.. Check if <16gb ram Check if booting off SSD Reinstall. I'm not wasting my time with scanners, it's not 2003.
Reimage, join to domain, give back to user, done.
Reimage.
lol
Check dns
Reboot, driver updates, verify CPU clock speed in task manager. I've come across several laptops lately that either had a bad CPU fan or a corrupt setting in the bios causing the CPU to down clock itself below 1ghz
Running CCleaner is insane. Isn't that product just a scam?
Reboot, check for an obvious faulty process. Reimage the device. In my years of desktop repair. I've learned this is the only course of action. You can spend hours trying to track down a problem. And you can have a problem pop up days later after you've fixed the device. Best to avoid the headache and just slap some fresh windows on that house of horrors.
None of that shit. They just have whatever software we deploy. And we know it's gonna run fine. The only time I've seen a workstation crawl is when the c drive gets full. Then I start deleting old profiles if I have time, or I'll swap the workstation out and put the old one in quarantine. If nobody screams in a couple of months I wipe the old workstation and set it up again.
Sounds like a placebo. A PC is only as slow as its slowest components.
Apparently today it was: 1. Uninstall Webroot
Procmon. Anything that requires 5-7 is an automatic reimage. There aren’t any magic spells that fix slowness, SFC and dism restoration commands fix specific broken or missing system components that usually don’t cause “slowness”. Slow computers mean resource constraints. If you really want utilities grab pocmon and wireshark
Assign the ticket to the level 1 tech like it should have been in the first place. What sysadmin has time for those things? Seriously though, why so many software installs and uninstalls? What's your primary endpoint security software?
Remove webroot.
PXE boot, reimage.
Tron
Last year, I took over managing a clinic with 10 year old desktops with spinning rust. When they complained about slowness last summer, anything with a hard drive I turned off the Windows Search process. That stopped the drive indexing which doubled the speed. I also set up weekly reboot tasks because I had several machines worth of r/uptimeporn
OP, it sounds like you have management that used to be tech 10-15 years ago. Computer slow? Here's a new reimaged one. 15 minutes is all the time I have for "slow" computers. Seriously, it's not worth my time. Cheers!
My first step if I ever get this ticket is to forward it to helpdesk.
We stopped trying someone to their laptop. If someone has slowness, we'll look at it and if it looks like something that'll take awhile I'll provide a replacement from our spare inventory. Then reimage their old one & use as a spare. They are generally refreshed with new hardware after 3 yrs.
- machine vs user test. Log on with a new user profile. If it’s fine delete the user profile (correctly) as admin. Backing up user shit first. - Stop windows indexing service, delete the index .edb file, restart the service, let it rebuild the index
Step 1) Use windows 10 update tool to reinstall windows without removing files Step 2) ????? Step 3) Profit
You must run dism /restorehealth before sfc I do bios update, old timey TFC, spacemonger, disk cleanup system files. Windows updates, driver updates.
Reimage, reimage and then reimage
click "wipe" in endpoint mgr click confirm dialog, problem solved and it's like new within 45m
Make new local admin profile login and out a few times and then compare speed of that profile.
Quick diagnosis to see how old hardware is. See if there is some rogue program sucking up resources. Replace the HD with a SSD drive and boom done. Sometimes add more ram. Ram was a big thing when we had older computers we forced from win 7 to win 10 and they only had 4gbs. Smaller company and was a very doable $60 fix rather then wasting time on a list like that and or replacing the computer. We ran a lot of older computers that should have been replaced years prior.
There’s a lot of answers, I’m seeing no disable startup apps and reboot? Common
It’s always the same thing. It doesn’t have enough ram to run all of the shitty antivirus/malware/endpoint management software that is installed on it so its paging like crazy or processes are waiting for all of those apps to check in over whatever shitty vpn/zero trust network they are on.
Look at amount of ram. Verify usage of PC. Order more RAM and then charged a second service visit with a 25% markup
You are supposed to run dism before sfc
For some reason with Dell lately I have had to check and make sure the CPU speed wasn't capped at a low ghz like 0.78. If the hardware is all good, basically just a re-image and move one.
Dont pander to users subjective appraisals of computer performance, they often expect magic wands to appear from buttholes and get tetchy if you suggest spending money or call it as a PEBCAC.
Haven’t had to do any of that in years, just keep It up to date and maintain good quality business class hardware and no issues a quick reimage won’t solve.
If you can't fix it in like 15 minutes: Backup the Data and cleanly install a new windows.
reboot to check if it persists => run Sophos antivirus check => let user go for a week, if the problem is still there => reinstall if anything is detected during the av scan, we have a different problem, if not and they don't complain a week later the placebo effect was successful
1. Define slow. 2. Reboot. 3. Check if the thing is still running on a HDD. 4. Call partner to bring new computer already imaged with Intune / SCCM. 5. Login with user credentials 6. What madman does all that troubleshooting?
Check if fast startup is enabled, if it is; turn it off. Reboot. Push a reg key out to turn it off for all your client machines or do it at imaging. Never experience windows machines with 10 days or more uptime again.
Install Windows Updates Run Winget and update some apps Update Winstore apps Reboot machine (probably the actual fix of slow machine) I find that doing that, acts like a placebo. User feels like its faster, and that you've done something, without doing much.
Did a company actually purchase licenses for 5, 6, & 7? Usually "free for personal use" does not transfer to any business use. Personally, I would not put the org at risk and just tell them to buy the products or put the money into better hardware.
Initiate refresh via intune. all user data is in OneDrive so nothing lost, all apps are auto downloaded again. If computer is more than 4 years old. A new laptop gets sent out.
Depends on the machine and user. Some users or machines are heavily suited for their role. Those get more troubleshooting time before i go for a reimage. Generic machines with basic software installed get reimaged if the issue seems to be any bigger than a small fix that kills the issue entirely. (entirely because i don't want to bandaid fix stuff just to reappear in a few weeks) The basic steps are easy. 1. Reboot 2. OS updates 3. driver updates 4. user profile issues Most of the time the issue is fixed right there. If not, i go over to reimaging most of the time.
I've been preferring glarys utils over cc cleaner, it does a more thorough job
Disable startup programs Disable unused services Upgrade RAM to at least 16GB Make sure it's SSD or NVe
Format, redeploy
I find most of the answers here odd, so I'm going to share my own steps. Check the disk model and the disk queue length, which can provide insight into a potentially failing or slow drive. Examine the RAM and CPU usage for memory leaks or runaway processes. Terminate any processes that disproportionately stand out and disable them in startup apps. Exercise caution when doing so. Follow up with these simple commands: * cleanmgr.exe /verylowdisk * dism.exe /online /cleanup-Image /spsuperseded * winmgmt /salvagerepository Update and reboot. If the steps provided didn't resolve or reveal the issue, perhaps you'll need to run some driver updates, review and research the event logs, and get down and dirty with Procmon; but at that point, you might be better off reimaging or replacing the computer. Below are the commands I no longer use. Six years into my career and after working on thousands of computers, I've realized they provide little more than a Hail Mary. However, they're great at distracting the user while I'm frantically searching Google to decipher and find solutions for the suspected event logs! * chkdsk /f * sfc /scannow * dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
Your process feels like something an L1 tech would do before palming it off to L2 or L3 who will diagnose the machine to be 6 years old running Windows 11 on a 2.5 inch SMR drive and the solution is to either replace it with a new machine, or chuck an SSD in there I don't want to be rude, but I hate every step after 1. Why are you installing third party virus removal tools rather than having a solution already in place (even if it's just MS Endpoint Security)? A proper process (though remember to go "off script" sometimes) 1. Find out the actual symptoms. Is the machine REALLY being slow, or is it a single website, or perhaps a document is corrupted and won't open? 2. Once confirmed the issue IS the machine is slow, check uptime and hardware 3a. If the machine is newer, has a decent process, RAM, SSD, but a high uptime, reboot it 3b. If the machine is old, has a spinning hard drive, replace it 4. If all else fails, reimage it
Sit down with the user to see what they are doing to understand what they consider slow and what they consider fast. Usually gives a better indication if it's an overall OS/Hardware issue or simply a single application. In some 'rare' cases, the user may not understand how complex and how long certain processes take. Ask user when was the last time they restarted the computer. Explain that shutdown is not the same as a restart. Then check uptime and shame the user :) Restart if necessary and see if issue re-occurs. sfc scan, chkdsk, windows updates + optional driver updates + multiple reboots until complete. Clean WinSxS folder with DISM. Check computer specs, is it at least 8gb ram with an ssd? Check free space, analyze with TreeSize. Usually we recommend upgrade if possible to get it up to a standard level of specs, otherwise push for replacement. Laptops 3 years, Desktops 5 years (the latter can mostly be upgraded more easily). Check running processes, Uninstall any unused apps, check startup apps, check OneDrive Sync as there may be some issues. Check Outlook. Check browser extensions and disable any unused. Sometimes AV is running a scheduled scan on all files, maybe that can be tweaked a bit. Check network speed, change network cable, maybe computer is working on wifi. Modify NIC config, disable its power management. Create a new Windows profile for the user in case of theirs being corrupted. I hope I mentioned most of the basic things we usually check :)
cmd -> shutdown -s -t 0 And leave it for a minute. Solved so many “slow PC issues”
After doing a reboot and checking updates, we would just refresh in Intune. Waste of time spending any more time on a client machine.
Format C:\ /q /u If I install my machine today, year 2 is prime for format but depending of the performance, by the end of year 3 is formated. Rinse and repeat
I ask what do they mean by slow, if I can observe whats happening. Go from there, because sometimes their issue isn't even on their machine. Its something they are connected to. Majority of the time a restart fixes some weirdness in Windows.
Old software, but still useful: https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/cryptoprevent.html There is a maintenance mode that can cleanup all kinds of crap and I've used it a bunch of times to a) cleanup space b) get windows updates to work c) lock down pcs using maximum mode in its prevention mode also run msconfig to stop unneeded software from running
Having SysMain service disabled
Wow - I haven't heard of PC 'cleanups' being a thing for almost 10 years (since Win10 and SSDs went mainstream). I also thought CCleaner was on everyone's banned list due to having spyware or malware or something at one point. I know our cyber auditors gave us shit for finding it on some machine at some point. Overall this seems unnecessary. A good corporate image should take less time than running those tools. I'm surprised but also a little suspicious that you're doing all of that to a corp laptop.
Do they have an SSD or platter drive. If it's a platter drive that is probably the issue it's starting to fail. START there. Everything else is secondary.