Windows Booting very slow after 2004 update ,

There was a ReadyBoot subfolder under prefetch which it would not let me delete. I was able to delete that folder's contents, though.

On restart, I didn't notice any improvement. The HDD is still maxed-out at 100% for ages (which has been a consistent problem with Win10 on this machine since an update two years ago). I noticed that Search was high up the Disk usage list, which is odd, as Search has been disabled in Services!

(And is apparently still disabled. . .).

I've been a Windows user since 3.0, but I think the time has come to give up on this OS. I'm fed up of spending hours every evening fighting with it to try and get it to function well enough to do a bit of work. Especially as with each new version of Windows, MS makes it harder to access tools (even Safe Mode is challenging to get to without finding step-by-step instructions on the web first) and get "under the bonnet" to fix things. It's completely unproductive to use. The 2004 update is the most troublesome yet for me. I'll be rolling it back to the previous build as soon as I've backed-up my files, and will probably go further and do a factory reset. (I've read articles about the benefits of doing a full clean install without the manufacturer's bloatware, but I'll try the factory reset first - the PC was great when it was new - only becoming slow and unrelaibale a few updates along.)

@Bassthang - If the HDD has been a 100% issue for the last 2 years that is an issue you need to look at. It may point to heavy "retries" due to data sectors being hard for the HDD internal controller to read, so it spends time re-trying reads to eventually get the data. The NTFS file system driver will do I/O retries too, if the HDD itself gives up on its own 512 or so "goes" at getting the data without ECC errors.

First, try looking at the device health under Disk Management (that is under Computer Management in the Control Panel, or you can find it from an icon "Manage"" in the "This PC" view.) Just check that your C: drive shows as Healthy.

You might want to get one of those SMART disk check utilities that can see the SMART disk error log statistics, for example HDD Guardian. That will give you a better idea of the drive state. If it  shows an issue, you might want to consider using Spinrite that a lot of IT Pros use to resurrect erroring HDD (and even SSD). 

See: https://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

Otherwise, check your startup items, to see if there is anything unexpected, like some scanner, or 2 anti-virus products fighting each other for access (there should only be one good one running ideally).

By the way, when you see 100% with Task manager (it needs at least 60 seconds to settle down, and wait for the System Interrupts to settle), did you try to ensure that the "view" was showing each item that makes up that 100%? Click on the disk percentage heading a couple of times to ensure it is sorted from highest to lowest. Even with a Norton full system scan running, mine only reaches 50%. if it is always 100%, something needs an in-depth review (like a Spinrite scan, or looking at the highest use process/program).

@Bassthang - in addition to my previous post, here is a screenshot of Task Manager with Norton running a full system scan, and with the other minor disk activities (Firefox, and a few others) on the Desktop PC, it only sits at 25%, and this is with Malwarebytes active as well. The laptop has a less powerful HDD (less internal cache, slower spin speed), so that sits at 50% doing the same work.

Did you check out my other post about checking for "ghost" devices in Device Manager? Try out the HDD Guardian if you get chance, and review the SMART stats for your boot drive.

Windows isn't becoming slower. That's a misconception !

I'm a programmer and I had (and still have) Windows 10 from it's first release. I've gone through all the updates and versions and the system kept it's parameters without exceptions.

Now I've installed v 2004, It's a fresh install because lately I've done some experiments with my PC and .... you get the picture.

The system has the same speed, with a slightly noticeable "pause" when you start a program or app than the 1909.

If you're still running on HDD, please change it immediately with an SSD.

Two things I've always done, right after a fresh install or major update of Windows:

1. Stopped and disabled SysMain service, or SuperFetch how it was called in early versions.
2. Stopped and disabled indexing service.

As a professional, I've never understood the role of SuperFetch (SysMain), other than keeping my drive bussy all the time. And the indexing service is just lame. I mean, if I don't know to organize and label my stuff it's my problem. That's my point of view, anyway.

Right after stopping SysMain, you drive will breath again. Trust me on this one.

LucianMinea

I hope you can give me a pathway to follow.  I am not a programmer and do not know how to accomplish your suggestion.  Thank you.

@MarylinAtchley1 - you do not need to be a programmer to do this - the experienced poster happens to be one.

The tool to do this (Services.msc) is in windows in part of the Control Panel or Settings part. You can go directly to the services control tool that does this by right-click on the start-menu icon (bottom left), choose Run, then key in "services.msc" without the quotes, click OK.

When it starts, you will see a new windows start up, listing all of the services. Scroll down to "sysmain", right click and choose stop. Then right click it again and choose "Properties", then choose disable.

In that same window, scroll down and find Windows Search, right click on that line and choose Stop. Wait for it to stop, then right click on it again, choose properties, choose disable. Close the window.

Reboot and check things again.

By the way, some users are finding that the install of the new Chrome Based Edge browser is affecting performance as well, especially if done via update KB4559309 (see the other forum on that subject).