Windows 10 defrag

[CliffordK]

How to turn off automatic updates in Windows 10​

2. When the Services window opens, scroll down to the Windows Update entry. Right-click this and choose Properties.
3. Select Disabled from the Startup type drop-down menu, then click Stop in the Service status section below. Click OK or Apply to disable automatic Windows updates.
____________________

I do a version of that several times a day with Windows 11. It automatically changes from Disabled to Delayed and runs anyway

Problem is windows updates take 99.9% or more of my network bandwidth, and kils it almost constantly.

 

[5030]

I've been running an early 2019 Dell laptop (8GB RAM, 1TB HD) for my main computer since I got it in 2019. Worked well for a few years, then last year it seemed to get slower. General info on the web and from a couple of sys admins was "Don't try and defrag, it's not worth it".
So about Thanksgiving I bought a refurbed Dell w/ a SSD drive. But to get to my price point (< $250) I had to go to a 512 GB HD w/ 16GB RAM.
Sort of sat the 2019 aside except for pulling something off it now and then. But the 2019 would take forever to boot up proper, the HD was always at 100% usage for a long time. Yesterday I wanted to pull a rarely used file off it instead of from my backup. It took 4 hours or more for the disk activity to allow me to get in, search around and grab the file.
Since I have a complete backup I decided to waste the time and try a defrag.
The Windows 10 defrag took 4 hours to run. The computer works well now.
Boot up only took about a minute after log in before disk activity died down.
I'm glad I hadn't done that before I bought the refurb. A "live backup" is good to have.

I use CCleaner but the professional version, not the freeware and it's on my cell phone as well. I've used it for a lot of years now but..

Don't ever use it on a solid state hard drive as it can corrupt it and SSD's self defragment themselves. The laptop I'm posting on has a 5 terrabite SSD installed in it. I could never use all the memory available even if I tried. Last time I checked it, it was at less than 20% usage plus I have a WD external 2 TB SSD running on the side as well. At my age, slow is a relative term anyway.

 

[5030]

I think we're talking about defragging the old spinning disk hard drives, not SSD. I don't have any windows machines with SSD. I have one with a couple TB hard drives.

Mossy, you are in the dark ages bub...

 

[drssg]

2. When the Services window opens, scroll down to the Windows Update entry. Right-click this and choose Properties.
3. Select Disabled from the Startup type drop-down menu, then click Stop in the Service status section below. Click OK or Apply to disable automatic Windows updates.
____________________

I do a version of that several times a day with Windows 11. It automatically changes from Disabled to Delayed and runs anyway

Problem is windows updates take 99.9% or more of my network bandwidth, and kils it almost constantly.

I noticed similar behavior. I never used the approach described above, but I had a license for the Professional version of Windows, which enabled me to create a policy to only run updates manually.

That worked fine until I got a new machine that had Window 11. It ignored the policy and automatically installed updates.

 

[MossRoad]

Mossy, you are in the dark ages bub...