performance degradation Archives

Winsage

December 2, 2025

Microsoft needs to make it easier to disable automatic Windows 11 updates

Updates in the Windows ecosystem are essential for enhancing stability, performance, and security. However, users of Windows 11 have expressed frustration due to frequent updates disrupting functionalities like network connectivity and printer access. Automatic updates can interrupt productivity, with unexpected restart prompts leading to potential loss of unsaved work. Issues with third-party programs and drivers often arise post-update, and older PCs experience significant performance degradation due to background updates. Many users face limitations with internet access, as substantial update sizes can consume data quickly, especially under fair usage policies. Storage constraints on older devices can lead to operational issues, and attempts to pause updates may not always be effective. While updates are crucial for delivering new features and security fixes, their frequency can diminish their perceived importance, causing users to delay addressing issues. Disabling automatic updates can be complicated, requiring adjustments in the Windows Update service, Group Policy Editor, or Registry, which may not be accessible or user-friendly. A simple one-click "Disable" button in the Windows Update settings would enhance user control over update installations, allowing them to manage updates according to their schedules.

Tech Optimizer

December 1, 2025

Risks of Manual PostgreSQL Starts in Patroni Clusters: Downtime Warnings

Patroni is an open-source tool for managing PostgreSQL clusters, automating failover and replication. Manual starting of PostgreSQL services within an active Patroni cluster can lead to severe disruptions, including data integrity issues and availability risks. Patroni uses a distributed consensus system, often with etcd or Consul, to manage cluster state and leader elections. Manual interventions can confuse this process, resulting in multiple nodes believing they are the primary, which can cause conflicting writes and potential data loss. Real-world incidents have documented outages due to manual starts, such as promoting a replica node to leader status inadvertently. This disrupts Write-Ahead Logging (WAL) synchronization, leading to divergent transaction logs. Database administrators are advised to use Patroni's built-in commands for service management and implement role-based access controls to prevent unauthorized manual actions. Monitoring solutions are crucial for early detection of anomalies. Simulating failure scenarios in staging environments can help prepare teams for real incidents. Ongoing advancements aim to enhance Patroni's safeguards against manual overrides, with future iterations potentially incorporating AI-driven anomaly detection.

Tech Optimizer

November 30, 2025

Netflix consolidates relational database infrastructure on Amazon Aurora, achieving up to 75% improved performance

Netflix operates a global streaming service using a distributed microservices architecture, with the Online Data Stores (ODS) team managing persistent data store solutions. The ODS team aims to enhance developer productivity and operational efficiency but faced challenges due to a fragmented relational database strategy involving multiple PostgreSQL-compatible engines, leading to operational inefficiencies and increased overhead for both infrastructure and application teams. To address these challenges, Netflix evaluated database solutions based on criteria focused on developer productivity, operational efficiency, performance reliability, and scalability. After thorough evaluation, Netflix selected Aurora PostgreSQL as the preferred database solution for relational workloads. Key reasons for choosing Aurora include its ability to handle single-Region and multi-Region workloads effectively, employing asynchronous storage-based replication for low-latency operations. Aurora's log-based write operations and shared storage architecture provide higher write throughput and lower latency. As a fully managed service, Aurora eliminates the manual operational overhead associated with self-managed databases, allowing developers to leverage existing PostgreSQL expertise with minimal code changes. Post-migration results for applications like Front50 and the Policy Engine showed significant improvements in latency and stability. Front50 experienced a 50% reduction in average latency and a 70% reduction in maximum latency. The Policy Engine noted overall latency improvements across all endpoints, with specific reductions in key functions, enhancing responsiveness and operational efficiency.

Winsage

November 30, 2025

Windows 11 bug “hides” your password sign-in button and Microsoft’s fix is… hover and click the right spot

Microsoft has acknowledged a bug in Windows 11 that obscures the “password” icon, preventing users from accessing the password field when logging in. This issue affects all PCs that have installed specific updates released between August 29 and November 11, 2023. Users who wish to log in using a password instead of a PIN are primarily impacted. Although the password button remains functional when hovering over the area where the icon should be, Microsoft has humorously suggested clicking randomly on the lock screen as a workaround.

Winsage

November 13, 2025

Tested: The Task Manager bug that slowed your PC is gone in Windows 11 Build 26200.7171

Microsoft has released the Windows 11 November 2025 Update (Build 26200.7171/26100.7171 or newer), which fixes an issue where the Task Manager did not close properly when the Close (X) button was clicked. This problem, first observed after the October optional update (KB5067036), caused multiple invisible instances of the Task Manager to accumulate, consuming 20-25 MB of RAM and 0 to 1.5% of CPU resources, leading to performance degradation. Microsoft confirmed that the October update inadvertently caused this issue while attempting to fix a grouping problem within the Task Manager. The November update (KB5068861) resolves the bug, restoring the expected functionality of the Task Manager. Users can check for lingering instances by opening the Task Manager and observing if multiple instances appear after closing and reopening it.

Winsage

November 10, 2025

9 data-driven ways to finalize your post‑Windows 10 strategy

Approximately 17% of Windows devices within enterprises are still utilizing Windows 10. Organizations can use hardware and firmware data to assess upgrade readiness, map application usage to target extended support investment, assess device health and digital experience, track performance degradation over time, analyze software dependencies, validate pilots with comparable data, investigate post-upgrade failures with diagnostics, automate fixes for common migration blockers, and weigh Windows 11 performance trade-offs. Upgrading to Windows 11 resulted in approximately 7% better disk throughput and lower latency, but also led to a 5% increase in CPU usage and a 7% rise in memory demand.

Tech Optimizer

November 4, 2025

PostgreSQL as a JSON database: Advanced patterns and best practices

Modern applications require adaptable data models, particularly in e-commerce, where product catalogs frequently change. JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) provides flexibility by allowing data models to evolve without rigid schemas. PostgreSQL supports JSON through two data types: JSON and JSONB. JSON stores text as-is but lacks indexing, while JSONB stores data in an optimized binary format, allowing for efficient processing and indexing. PostgreSQL is suitable for various applications, including web and mobile apps, content management systems (CMS), scientific research, geospatial applications, and those requiring advanced search features. In a CMS context, PostgreSQL's JSON capabilities can manage both structured and unstructured data, simplifying the retrieval of article information. The database structure can accommodate both structured and semi-structured data using JSONB for metadata. GIN indexing enhances performance for searching JSON fields. PostgreSQL allows for complex querying of JSON data, including full-text search and transforming JSON into tabular data using JSON_TABLE. Optimizing GIN indexes and employing strategies for efficient querying, such as using expression and partial indexes, can improve performance. PostgreSQL can integrate with Amazon OpenSearch Service for advanced search capabilities. AWS-hosted PostgreSQL services, like Amazon RDS and Aurora, provide additional benefits, such as distributed storage architecture and parallel query processing. Best practices for using PostgreSQL’s JSON capabilities include strategic data modeling, effective indexing strategies, query optimization, and considerations for schema evolution and storage management.

Winsage

November 3, 2025

Microsoft: Windows Task Manager won’t quit after KB5067036 update

Microsoft has acknowledged an issue affecting Windows 11 users after installing the optional October 2025 update (KB5067036), where the Task Manager does not fully close when the "Close" button is used, resulting in multiple instances of taskmgr.exe running in the background. This can lead to performance degradation, including system stuttering and CPU hangs. A temporary workaround involves manually terminating each Task Manager process or using the Command Prompt with the command: taskkill.exe /im taskmgr.exe /f. The KB5067036 update also introduced enhancements like an updated Start Menu and restored functionality to the Windows 11 Media Creation Tool, while addressing specific update errors.

Tech Optimizer

October 28, 2025

Optimize and troubleshoot database performance in Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL by analyzing execution plans using CloudWatch Database Insights

Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers monitoring tools for Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) and Amazon Aurora databases, including Amazon CloudWatch Database Insights, which helps analyze SQL execution plans for troubleshooting and optimizing SQL query performance in Aurora PostgreSQL clusters. The PostgreSQL query optimizer generates multiple execution strategies for SQL queries and selects the most efficient based on cost estimation. A query access plan details the execution strategy, which can be analyzed using the EXPLAIN command. In December 2024, AWS launched CloudWatch Database Insights, supporting Aurora and RDS engines, aimed at helping DevOps engineers, developers, and DBAs identify and resolve database performance issues. The tool has Advanced and Standard modes, with SQL execution plan analysis available in Advanced mode. To analyze SQL execution plans, users can access CloudWatch Database Insights, review performance metrics, and compare execution plans side-by-side. For example, one execution plan may use a sequential scan while another uses an index scan, revealing differences in query performance. When troubleshooting performance degradation, DBAs can compare execution plans over time to identify changes affecting performance. For instance, dropping indexes can lead to suboptimal execution plans and increased query costs. Analyzing execution plans can uncover inefficiencies, such as missing indexes or outdated statistics. For example, a query summarizing customer spending revealed that the work_mem parameter was set too low, causing disk-based sorting instead of in-memory sorting, which degraded performance. Increasing the work_mem parameter improved query execution efficiency. CloudWatch Database Insights simplifies the process of identifying performance bottlenecks and optimizing query performance through visualizations and execution plan comparisons.

Winsage

October 19, 2025

BitLocker reportedly auto-locks users’ backup drives, causing loss of 3TB of valuable data — Windows automatic disk encryption can permanently lock your drives

In 2007, Microsoft introduced BitLocker storage encryption with Windows Vista, initially available only in the Enterprise and Ultimate editions. With Windows 11, BitLocker is activated by default for users signing in with a Microsoft account during the Out-Of-Box Experience (OOBE). A Reddit user experienced issues after reinstalling Windows, as two of their drives became inaccessible due to BitLocker encryption activating without consent. BitLocker can slow SSD performance by up to 45% due to the CPU handling continuous encryption and decryption. The software version of BitLocker differs from the hardware OPAL version, which offers better performance but does not enable automatically. BitLocker does not activate automatically for users upgrading from Windows 10 to 11. The affected user may need to wipe the drives to regain access. Users are advised to regularly check and disable BitLocker if unnecessary and to document encryption keys and back up sensitive data.