Windows 10 devices could lose some of its lusters and get
slower over time. While there are ways to improve your device
performance, it looks like Microsoft is finally making changes
with May 2020 Update to make Windows 10 run faster on some
hardware.
With Windows 10 version 1909, Microsoft made substantial
changes to Cortana, separating it completely from Windows
Search. In May 2020 Update (version 2004), Microsoft has
fine-tuned disk usage of Windows Search indexer to address high
disk usage caused by the aggressive indexing process.
Microsoft states that Windows Search can now better identify
peak usage times and manage the indexer accordingly. It’s true,
according to multiple tests we did on real hardware and virtual
machines with different configurations.
Windows 10 May 2020 Update actually feels faster if your
hardware is equipped with HDD, which is an old generation
storage device that uses mechanical platters and is usually
slower than SSD hardware.
HDDs storage are larger than SSDs and much slower to read and
write. As a result, if you run a disk-intensive process, your
PC is likely to get slower. Windows Search process is
disk-intensive and the indexing loop may cause increased load
on the system drive.
The May 2020 Update is faster on HDD hardware, thanks to the
reduced disk usage by Windows Search process.
For SSDs, you are unlikely to notice any significant
improvements as anything you load on it already perform actions
much quicker. The beauty of an SSD is that its waiting time is
already dramatically reduced when compared to HDD.
However, in some cases, the indexing duties could still hit on
your PC’s performance even with SSD storage, and hog CPU and
disk resources as we’ve heard in the past.
Windows 10 version 2004 will also throttle or completely stop
any indexing activity when you are transferring files, deleting
files and your SSD or HDD disk is being actively used.
Windows Search’s ability to throttle indexing activity will
prevent such slowdowns from occurring on both SSDs and HDDs.
Windows 10’s May 2020 Update has already been finalized and
it’s expected to roll out as soon as next month, so if you’re
suffering from high disk usage problem, your PC could finally
get a remedy in May.
Smarter Windows Seach indexing process
Microsoft is also working on Windows Search with improved logic
so it can intelligently determine when to perform the indexing
of your files and improve overall performance of the system.
Idea is that Windows 10 will avoid carrying out any indexing
work while you’re actively using the device.
Microsoft plans to roll out this new algorithm for
Windows Search with Windows 10 20H2 update later this year.
