I stopped clearing Windows caches after discovering it was silently costing me performance

xda-developers.com/clearing-your-cache-is-the-cleanup-tip-everyone-repeats-and-its-quietly-making-your-pc-slower/

Credibility C

Oct 02

I stopped clearing Windows caches after discovering it was silently costing me performance

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pcgameshardware.de

Credibility C

Oct 27

Windows 11: Why a “tuning” trick actually slows down your PC: The Windows 11 Prefetch folder sometimes contains hundreds of files. People who delete these files ...

pcgameshardware.de/Windows-Software-277633/News/Windows-11-Prefetch-loeschen-PC-langsamer-Tuning-1557858/

xda-developers.com/nvidia-had-quietly-taken-40gb-of-my-c-drive-for-a-feature-that-i-was-barely-using-at-all/

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Nvidia had quietly taken 40GB of my C: drive for a feature that barely mattered at all

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xda-developers.com/vlc-painfully-slow-windows-11-pc-change-this-setting/

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VLC was painfully slow on my Windows 11 PC until I found what was throttling it: It turns out VLC wasn't to blame at all; it was Microsoft all along

Key FactsVideoLAN Links Slow VLC Launches to Defender Bug

Sep 29, 2026 · Reading time: ~30 sec.
Summary created with AI assistance · Source: xda-developers.com

On August 12, VideoLAN highlighted the problem and said a Defender update had quarantined VLC’s plug-in cache.

On affected PCs, VLC sometimes took around 15 seconds to launch, according to the author.

When the article was published, Microsoft had not released a patch for the Defender bug.

Users can regenerate VLC’s cache and exclude the VideoLAN or VLC folder from Defender scans.

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Your “high performance” power plan might be hurting your CPU's gaming performance

uk.pcmag.com/iphone-apps/152011/is-your-iphone-annoyingly-slow-clearing-hidden-app-caches-might-fix-it

pcmag.com

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Is Your iPhone Annoyingly Slow? Clearing Hidden App Caches Might Fix It: Cache is all the data your phone stores locally, but it can build up over time and slow ...

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xda-developers.com/i-found-where-windows-keeps-files-deleted-years-ago-it-wasnt-recycle-bin/

Oct 10

I found where Windows keeps files you deleted years ago, and it wasn't the Recycle Bin

Key FactsWindows Can Retain Traces of Deleted Files in Multiple Locations

Sep 15, 2026 · Reading time: ~45 sec.
Summary created with AI assistance · Source: xda-developers.com

Through Previous Versions, the author opened older folder states and restored files that had previously been deleted.

These shadow copies arise during restore points, Windows updates, or scheduled tasks, rather than with every individual file change.

Using Thumbcache Viewer, the thumbnail cache revealed recognizable previews, but not original files, sometimes from months or years earlier.

Using Storage Sense and Disk Cleanup, the author recovered roughly 20GB of space by removing leftover data.

Now when I delete something, I don't assume the operating system has forgotten it.
— From Samarveer's first-person account in the article, describing privacy concerns about Windows' data remnants.

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pcgameshardware.de

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VLC sometimes takes 30 seconds to start under Windows 11: VLC can sometimes take an unusually long time to start on the first launch under Windows 11 ...

pcgameshardware.de/Windows-Software-277633/News/Win-11-Defender-VLC-Start-verzoegert-1551457/

Key FactsVideoLAN suspects Defender behind delayed VLC starts on Windows 11

Aug 19, 2026 · Reading time: ~30 sec.
Summary created with AI assistance · Source: pcgameshardware.de

User reports describe waits of roughly 10 to more than 30 seconds when launching VLC or opening an MP3 file for the first time, while later launches may be faster.

According to VideoLAN, Microsoft Defender may quarantine the plugins.dat file after a Windows 11 update, forcing VLC to rescan its plug-ins; Microsoft has not confirmed this.

The findings are inconsistent: Tom's Hardware and PCGH could not reproduce the delay, while Windows Central measured about five seconds initially and less than one second after excluding VLC from Defender scans.

VideoLAN cites reinstalling VLC or rebuilding the plug-in cache as possible approaches, while several reports found that excluding VLC reduced startup times but weakened the antivirus scanner’s protection.

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My Fire TV Stick stopped feeling sluggish after I changed this setting: It's something you should do periodically for the best performance

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How to clear your Windows 11 PC cache (and put a stop to lag for good): Clear this hidden data to noticeably speed up your computer - here's how to do it.

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How to clear your Windows 11 PC cache (and wipe out lag for good): Clear this hidden data to noticeably speed up your computer - here's how to find it.

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These Windows "optimizations" are actually hurting your PC performance: Cleaning your PC sounds like a great idea for improving performance, but that's not ...

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Leaving Windows 10 today? How to clear your new Windows 11 PC cache (and start fresh)

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Report: Microsoft's latest Windows 11 24H2 update breaks SSDs/HDDs, may corrupt your data

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