Microsoft Quietly Fixes Windows XP Resource Hog Problem 246
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft indicated this week that it has fixed a Windows XP resource-hog problem associated with the system's SVCHOST.EXE processes. Windows XP users affected by this problem typically found that the operating system was using up system resources for 15 minutes to an hour after startup, making it difficult to use the machine during that period. The Microsoft Update team had vowed last month to spend the holiday break tackling the issue, which has plagued some users for years. The fix involved stopping the system from perpetually checking Internet Explorer updates. Microsoft indicated that the fix was rolled out on Tuesday."
Re:Over a decade (Score:3, Interesting)
Windows Server 2003 supported until mid-2015 (Score:5, Interesting)
Suppose if they didn't get it over the holiday and it wasn't done by April 8th, they could have perhaps saved themselves all the bother and turned off all update checks
Windows Server 2003 is supported longer than Windows XP despite using the same update mechanism and nearly the same kernel. Extended support for Windows Server 2003 ends on 7/14/2015 [microsoft.com], and this problem will only get worse for servers over the last two and a half years of extended support. So there's a benefit for making a fix for Windows Server 2003. And if the same fix applies to Windows XP, it doesn't cost Microsoft that much to release the fix for both, and the gesture of goodwill could help deter companies from switching to GNU/Linux or OS X instead of buying Windows 8.1 + Classic Shell.
Re:EOL installation media (Score:2, Interesting)
This.
I'd be happy to pay Microsoft for a blessed EOL XP SP4 and/or Win7 SP2.
Re:Over a decade (Score:5, Interesting)
The problem is that you don't get a killer operating system but a garbage operating system. I actually want to pay the $100 to Microsoft to not have to constantly worry about shit breaking.
Linux is good for many purposes, but the desktop environments are essentially alpha quality software. Just the other day I tried adjusting the time of the Magic Lamp effect in its properties dialog under KDE. Whooptidoo, using anything than the default value gives me two magic lamp effects. And how about looking at the latest Xubuntu release, it shipped with broken sound indicator [webupd8.org] and broken power management [launchpad.net]. These are just completely silly and unnecessary regressions. If we start to talk about the Unity desktop (which represents a de facto Linux experience to many), it's just a huge bugfest which I don't even want to begin to talk about. It is also extremely slow.
The declining quality of the Linux desktop should be taken very seriously. These are similar experiences to why I hated Windows back in the day when it still sucked. I want to use the most stable and fast software available.
Why fix it now? (Score:2, Interesting)
I'll bet it persists in Vista, 7, 8 and 8.1 or it's prodigy would exhibit the problem. I just looked over the patch Tuesday fixes from this week and there's no mention of anything for SVCHOST however there is a nice memory leak that's been around for a long time in oleaut32.dll. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2870467 [microsoft.com]
I guess they don't take advantage of static or runtime analysis tools at MSFT.
Re:Let me get this straight... (Score:4, Interesting)
Have you run the modern browsers on a recent OS?
Firefox is usable again and uses the least amount of ram. IE starting with 9 started acting compliant and normal. I couldn't believe it in 2011. IE 11 has an issue at work because it is so standards compliant that it no longer supports legacy jscript code that launches IE specific flash. It runs like it should. This of course angers the MBAs and the luddities and slashdotters still think it must be the same as IE 6 and wont touch it!
IE is actually good and if banks stopped feeding it broken IE code from last decade it would work. Firefox still is missing some things but I really like that it has true adblock. Google is so limited that adblock plus only stops it from appearing on the screen. The ads still run and track you and install malware. You just do not see it etc.
FYI adblock plus now works with IE as well!
Times are changing and I feel it is safe to say MS wont ever do an IE 6 again and can't. I do feel Chrome could become that role in the next couple of years if businesses give up after Windows 7 and go all tablet in 5 years. With Citrix that is a possibility if Windows 9 blows.
Re:Let me get this straight... (Score:2, Interesting)
IE 11 is still behind and MS like Apple and Google want to keep it that way and have people write apps instead that use the HTML rendering engine below. Adblock plus is available for it. But like the previous poster stated many websites that have not been updated in awhile have issues with IE 11 as its javascript is too standards compliant :-)
They see IE and feed ancient code. MS fixed the issue with HTML and CSS with this as Apache recognizes it as Firefox now, however it still feeds ancient javascript sadly written for crappy versions.
Firefox to me is speedy again. Delete and recreate your Firefox profile if you have not re-imaged your computer since version 4? Now it will load as fast as Chrome and have better hardware acceleration.
The issue with Firefox still is not does not do process by tab like IE and Chrome do. On an icore7 this is frustrating as everything still is one big process on 1 cpu but it uses less ram than any browser out there.
The browsers are changing rapidly. I switched back to Firefox myself and thankfully it is not the piece of crap it was. If I had a gun to my head I could use IE 10 and later and still get a similar experience but I want to move on. The days of sites only working with IE 6 blew.