I'm not sure if this is a problem, or a 'feature' tbh, so I thought I'd ask you lot. 
I've been in Snow Leopard and Linux for a while and it's pretty hard to deny they're both awesome at multitasking. I missed Windows 7 though and decided to format back, so off I went and reinstalled Win 7 Ultimate x64.
Once I'd set it up and configured it to my liking (Threatfire, the new DivX codec with MKV/thumbnailing capability, MPC-HC, Thunderbird, Firefox) I began to notice something I'd never noticed before. Say I have Thunderbird running minimised to tray, Firefox open with one or two tabs, and I decide to do something else. Without fail, it goes like this:
It doesn't have to be opening a folder; I could be launching MPC-HC, navigating through Explorer, opening a photo in Photo Viewer, anything. Basically whenever I try to do a new thing, Windows (and all running apps) pauses/freezes until the system seems to catch up with itself a second or two later and zooms off to do my bidding. It's pretty hard to describe actually, but it just feels slightly sluggish/clumsy despite running fast as heck once it's actually doing something.
Specs aren't a problem, or certainly shouldn't be: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3LR, E8600 clocked to 4GHz (does it at stock too so not an oc issue), 4GB OCZ Reaper @ 1066MHz, GeForce 8600GT. Not a rig that should be struggling to run a couple of basic apps at once! Linux effortly rips through multitasking on the same rig, with no such issues, so it shouldn't be a hardware issue anyway. Memory is perfectly healthy, and running at stock. There's plenty of free RAM in Windows when this error occurs (even a few mins after a clean reboot).
Drivers on the Win7 install are the latest from Gigabyte (chipset, audio, LAN etc) and it's pretty much a clean install apart from Threatfire and a few basic apps as above. Any thoughts or ideas? This is driving me nuts and I'm considering just hosing my hdd and putting Linux back. I'm on a Linux live CD right now and even running from optical media it's smoother than Windows 7 when trying to do two things at once and opening new apps.
I know I loved Windows 7 when its beta came out, so now I can't decide if I've just gotten used to how fast and smooth Linux and Snow Leopard are - so now Windows seems jerky/clumsy - or else my install has an issue and Windows 7 shouldn't be like this at all. To be fair, btw, a "normal" user likely wouldn't even notice what I'm describing here. It's not like it crashes or anything. I'm literally talking about momentary pauses/glitching when trying to open new stuff - sure it has to load into memory and execute but it shouldn't pause/affect other running apps surely?
I've been in Snow Leopard and Linux for a while and it's pretty hard to deny they're both awesome at multitasking. I missed Windows 7 though and decided to format back, so off I went and reinstalled Win 7 Ultimate x64. Once I'd set it up and configured it to my liking (Threatfire, the new DivX codec with MKV/thumbnailing capability, MPC-HC, Thunderbird, Firefox) I began to notice something I'd never noticed before. Say I have Thunderbird running minimised to tray, Firefox open with one or two tabs, and I decide to do something else. Without fail, it goes like this:
- Double click "username" folder on Desktop.
- Windows pauses/freezes (often including any playing media) for a second or two.
- Folder opens and everything resumes.
It doesn't have to be opening a folder; I could be launching MPC-HC, navigating through Explorer, opening a photo in Photo Viewer, anything. Basically whenever I try to do a new thing, Windows (and all running apps) pauses/freezes until the system seems to catch up with itself a second or two later and zooms off to do my bidding. It's pretty hard to describe actually, but it just feels slightly sluggish/clumsy despite running fast as heck once it's actually doing something.
Specs aren't a problem, or certainly shouldn't be: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3LR, E8600 clocked to 4GHz (does it at stock too so not an oc issue), 4GB OCZ Reaper @ 1066MHz, GeForce 8600GT. Not a rig that should be struggling to run a couple of basic apps at once! Linux effortly rips through multitasking on the same rig, with no such issues, so it shouldn't be a hardware issue anyway. Memory is perfectly healthy, and running at stock. There's plenty of free RAM in Windows when this error occurs (even a few mins after a clean reboot).
Drivers on the Win7 install are the latest from Gigabyte (chipset, audio, LAN etc) and it's pretty much a clean install apart from Threatfire and a few basic apps as above. Any thoughts or ideas? This is driving me nuts and I'm considering just hosing my hdd and putting Linux back. I'm on a Linux live CD right now and even running from optical media it's smoother than Windows 7 when trying to do two things at once and opening new apps.
I know I loved Windows 7 when its beta came out, so now I can't decide if I've just gotten used to how fast and smooth Linux and Snow Leopard are - so now Windows seems jerky/clumsy - or else my install has an issue and Windows 7 shouldn't be like this at all. To be fair, btw, a "normal" user likely wouldn't even notice what I'm describing here. It's not like it crashes or anything. I'm literally talking about momentary pauses/glitching when trying to open new stuff - sure it has to load into memory and execute but it shouldn't pause/affect other running apps surely?
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