Windows timing

[Karlos]

Open up the task manager in Windows and watch how windows jumps from process to process apparently at random. Can someone explain to me why it can't operate in an orderly fashion.

It suggests windows is just stitched together from various pieces rahter than being design wholistically.

The reason the task manager, top etc. appear to do this is the fact that task switching usually happens much, much faster than the monitor application is updated. It also depends on how you've chosen to order the data. In a system where one process is clobbering the CPU, it'll invariably appear at the top when organising by CPU time (which is generally the default).

AmigaOS is no different, other than the lack of dynamic priority scheduling (can be added using Executive). Exec gives processor time in turn to each ready to run process in the current list. Only sleeping processes are skipped over.

[Karlos]

Your best bet is to switch to linux :lol:

Seriously, on my dual boot, I hear the HD grinding regularly on Vista, yet I only hear the tiniest rattle when doing some obvious file access on linux.

If it weren't for games, I wouldn't even have a windows install.

[Karlos]

You could try disabling the swapfile and see if that makes the grinding go away.

Come on, the machine only has 4GB of RAM. It'll never boot without some swap to molest :roflmao:

In fairness, I'm not convinced it's that, really. I flayed my Vista install. No themes (looks just like Win2000, but with thicker borders), every non-critical service blocked from starting, indexing disabled, you name it.