PT 12 Running REALLY slow after windows 7 update

[mickeyrouse]

Yesterday my computer, of its own accord, updated Windows 7. Now almost everything about it runs really......slow. It will take about two minutes to just start Pro Tools. It can take that long to load a project. And that long to load some VST plug-ins. When clicking PLAY it may (or may not) just sit.
Windows had done this before, and I have removed the latest version of Windows, and operations reverted to only the normal level of frustration.
However, this time uninstalling the latest Windows version hadn’t helped much if any.
I admittedly am pushing the performance envelope with this laptop I’m working on, but it has generally been something I can live with for MIDI writing and editing I’m doing at home for pieces that will be completed in the studio.
When I delete the latest Windows updates, there are still a lot of older versions in the program list that I wonder about. And I wonder if somehow all these versions are tripping over each other.
Does anyone have any recommendations of which version of Windows 7 works optimally with PT 12?

[junkgear]

PT 12 should work fine on a fully updated Win 7 system, so perhaps one of your drivers is having an issue with the Windows update?

I would make sure all of your drivers are updated, then try trashing your PT preferences. Also try holding down the N key while PT starts, which will force a hardware refresh. Select your interface from the Playback engine settings, then I would go in and default all of your Input, Output and Bus I/O settings.

These steps should pretty much refresh everything in PT and hopefully restore performance.

[mjslakeridge]

Mainstream support for Windows 7 ended in January, 2015, so it is unlikely that Microsoft updated your OS recently. Extended support for Windows 7 will end in January, 2020 so you will continue to receive security related updates until then.

There is the possibility that Microsoft did roll out an update to Windows 7 recently due to the kernel memory issue with Intel processors that we found out about last week. Do you have any more details about the update you received?