Windows UI lag issue

[Xalzor]

Hello!

 

I have a pretty weird UI lag issue with Windows which I kept experiencing throughout many PC's and servers and many Windows installs.

 

Given 2 scenarios:

 

1. My personal PC, system is at idle and im just opening basic Windows apps like Explorer or Volume mixer or when I open the task manager same thing happens it opens slowly and even the CPU usage spikes up and etc. it seems basically only Windows based apps are only affected since I didnt really experience this lag on anything else. They are either open with a delay or not as responsive, like you can definitely feel the unresponsiveness interacting with these apps, mostly only when you open them, its like some old PC. Now on my personal PC this isnt that bad but I can still feel it and it shouldnt be happening. I have 5900X with 32GB Ram and an NVME SSD. (Newly built system with fresh Windows install)

This is a video of the issue on my main PC, here its not that apparent but trust me I can definitely feel it and I dont think this is how it should be, at least I dont remember this is how it was few years back.

 

https://streamable.com/kaafqw

 

2. My server, this is a 24c/48t server with 128gb ram and Enterprise NVME SSD, and this is a little bit different story, when the CPU is starting to get above 50% only then the UI starts to happen and it gets worse as I add more load, now keep in mind this is a Windows VM, but still the overall CPU usage is like 50-70% and the ram maybe half on the server and in this instance the lag is way more noticeable, its like some 30 year old PC or something which shouldnt be happening, even when you max out your CPU something like this shouldnt happen so I dont think it has anything to do with the hardware or the usage since on my personal rig this happens at even on idle just not as bad.

I uploaded video to showcase the issue on the server, now keep in mind this was captured on the server and this was way above 50% CPU usage so its basically a very dramatic worst case scenario its like 1/3 of this when the server is at 50% or below and on my PC its 1/10. Think this more like illustration purposes or like if the video was slowed down, especially compared to my PC since there its barely noticeable (but still can feel it and annoying) and doesnt matter if its under load or not.

 

https://streamable.com/1ut7h1

 

 

Thanks for the help.

[Senzelian]

I think I've seen this before once or twice, but only on Windows 7 machines.

Usually re-installing fixed it for me.

 

Maybe you can try the following and see if that helps. It might make a few things look a little unusual, but I wonder if disabling a few system settings helps. This basically disables a few different animations, transparency effects, shadows and such things. I can't guarantee that this will actually do something, but it could help.

I have a few instructions below (sadly in German), but I'm sure you'll understand:

 

 

Go to your Windows 10 settings and click System:

 

 

Click the Info panel all the way at the bottom left and afterwards the advanced system settings on the right side:

 

 

Now go into the performance settings within the advanced tab:

 

 

Disable all the options or simply click "adjust for optimal performance":

 

 

 

[Xalzor]

1 hour ago, Senzelian said:

I think I've seen this before once or twice, but only on Windows 7 machines.

Usually re-installing fixed it for me.

 

Maybe you can try the following and see if that helps. It might make a few things look a little unusual, but I wonder if disabling a few system settings helps. This basically disables a few different animations, transparency effects, shadows and such things. I can't guarantee that this will actually do something, but it could help.

I have a few instructions below (sadly in German), but I'm sure you'll understand:

 

 

Go to your Windows 10 settings and click System:

 

 

Click the Info panel all the way at the bottom left and afterwards the advanced system settings on the right side:

 

 

Now go into the performance settings within the advanced tab:

 

 

Disable all the options or simply click "adjust for optimal performance":

 

 

Unfortunately reinstalling doesnt fix this for me, since this is happening on both my new and old PC with fresh Windows installs.

 

Yeah so this Performance Options toggle does help noticeably especially on my server but it doesnt completely solve the issue, also it would be okay on my server but I wouldnt want to use performance toggle on my own PC since I like the looks.

 

Funny thing is this UI lag is happening on Linux too which you might think it would definitely wouldnt happen there but anyway the point is if you disable the composer on Linux which are basically the animations and UI tweaks to make it look fancy this issue seems to be 100% gone, like much much better than disabling it on Windows.

 

So yeah this issue probably has to do something with the UI of these OS's, but I wonder if there is a actual 100% fix for Windows.

[Senzelian]

14 hours ago, Xalzor said:

snip

I wonder if this has anything to do with the version of Windows you installed.

Is your Server actually running Windows Server or is it simply Windows 10? And did you use the same flash drive for both installs? I'm asking, because there has to be something common between these two machines that causes this issue and that's the only thing I can come up with. What else do they share in terms of hardware or software?

[Xalzor]

5 hours ago, Senzelian said:

I wonder if this has anything to do with the version of Windows you installed.

Is your Server actually running Windows Server or is it simply Windows 10? And did you use the same flash drive for both installs? I'm asking, because there has to be something common between these two machines that causes this issue and that's the only thing I can come up with. What else do they share in terms of hardware or software?

I have latest builds on my old/new PC and the server is running Windows Server 2019.

 

I can only think of the programs that I have installed on both PC's and maybe one or multiple of them causing this issue because if I load safe mode in Win 10 everything is super responsive, this issue is gone.

And for the server I think it has to do something that the Windows is virtualized combined with high load, like the Win Server VM has barely any program on it so I dont think on that instance its a program causing it, but anyway it sucks this is even a thing nowadays.