I’ve never seen any measurable performance hits due to registry bloat. The real problem is the amount of software out there that loads something at startup, at minimum the update checker.
Another more serious issue I’ve been encountering with my customers over the past year has been the bundling of crapware with downloads from sites such as CNET; the installers are designed so that the average user won’t notice he’s adding junk. A pox on CNET for failing to enforce their own TOS in this regard.
Well, that load-at-login/startup crap is unquestionably a killer factor. I've seen systems take 5+ minutes to boot, and when you just disable it all in MSCONFIG (or the Windows Registry HKLM...Run area), suddenly bootup is under a minute.
> Another more serious issue I’ve been encountering with my customers over the past year has been the bundling of crapware with downloads from sites such as CNET; the installers are designed so that the average user won’t notice he’s adding junk. A pox on CNET for failing to enforce their own TOS in this regard.
Those download sites do love to bundle crap along with the real payload. And that doesn't even count the misleading "BEGIN DOWNLOAD" buttons that try to fake the user into clicking something that has nothing whatsoever to do with what they came for. I hate that stuff.