What are the "sure" methods of reducing windows startup time?

[sandia911]

What are the "sure" methods of reducing windows startup time?

My bootup speed is annoyingly slow. I know there are a few tips n tricks for reducing the time it takes to reach the desktop from the initial power on.

But what are the most effective of these tricks or hacks?

My details:
Windows XP Home running on a 256RAM, 2.5Ghz P4 laptop (with wireless internet). The computer is used mostly for surfing and P2P.

 

[Matt1809]

Aside form turning off services you dont need, or going into MS config (neither of which you should do if you dont know much about them), may I suggest turning off applications on your taskbar that you dont need. Many of them have an option to disable their auto start when you log into windows.

If you havent defragmented your hd in a while, that may also be a good thing to do.

And if you have had your computer for a while, clear out everything in your C:\Windows\prefetch folder. This will make your computer a bit slower the next few times you start it, but will clear out outdated caches of software you no longer use.

 

[tccia1]

Ok if your details are written correctly then it would definately be worth it to invest in some more ram.. seriously with a processor like that there is no reason to only have 256 mb of ram.

 

[jft245]

Ok if your details are written correctly then it would definately be worth it to invest in some more ram.. seriously with a processor like that there is no reason to only have 256 mb of ram.

I couldn't agree more. I have a Dell Inspiron 6000 and I upgraded the memory from 512k and added a 1gig memory stick and it flys now. It only cost $112US and only took like a half minute to install. It should be illeagle to sell any system with Windows XP with just 256K memory.

 

[mike_n_herrin]

Ok if your details are written correctly then it would definately be worth it to invest in some more ram.. seriously with a processor like that there is no reason to only have 256 mb of ram.

you seriously need more ram. 512 is typical these days. I have 2 gig.

 

[gabriel1]

you definitely need more RAM. I I have 1 gig and am thinking of going up

 

[tino_t]

Hi Sandia, you are not alone This problem annoys everyone eventually!

Well I got really annoyed last week since I've been using my PC for a while now without cleaning it up, and I use A LOT of installed software so my startups & shutdowns were beginning to get ridiculous. I'd got used to going and making some tea while waiting for it to get together. My times are now a lot better, close to when I first set up my computer.

Here are my main tips. Sorry they are pretty general but you did say "sure", and they worked well for me:

1. Virus software.
First, get some! Even if they don't harm your PC viruses will slow you down. Furthermore, scanning every file your computer uses slows things down big time. Then I happened to see an online list which compared Virus scanners not only by detection but also speed. NOD 32 was listed as the most rapid, and after throwing out Norton 2007 and Kaspersky 6 I can confirm everything is much faster. For interest, its detection is reportedly just as good as Kaspersky's, with Norton third.

$0 Budget Option: free online virus scans at:

• Panda Antivirus Online Scan
• BitDefender Online Scan
• F-Secure Online Scan

2. Adware.
The big 3 virus programs of Norton, Kaspersky and NOD are all very well but I have found their claimed adware detection is poor. The number of times I have been getting serious slowdown and eventually found out it was just adware is pretty big. Get some specialised software like Ad-Aware.

3. Resident programs.
Many very common pieces of software load themselves or parts of themselves at start up to make running them later more rapid or some other reason. Personally I prefer to just wait a second longer when I actually need the program. Examples: Realplayer, iTunes, Nero, Portable Hardware Plugins e.g. Nokia Software Suite all run unnecessary programs. Simply go to the program options of each and deactivate the "run at startup" kind of option.

Slightly more advanced version: Delete unnecessary items in Start Menu->Programs->Startup.

Advanced version (only if you know what you're doing!): use the registry editor to find the windows internal startup list at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run and delete entries which look suspicious or you just don't want running.

Hope some of this helps

 

[tino_t]

Oh and one more possibility:

4. Clean Your Hard Drive
Your computer's disk memory may be in a mess and therefore inefficient, or you may have disk errors. The latter is not likely but the former - a "fragmented" hard drive caused by heavy computer use - slows every computer down eventually. Fixing is usually easy. Run these programs:

Part 1: Start Menu->Programs->Accessories->System Tools->Disk Cleanup
Part 2: Start Menu->My Computer->Right click a hard drive->Tools Tab->Check Now->Tick both boxes and choose "Start."
Part 3: Start Menu->Programs->Accessories->System Tools->Disk Defragmenter

 

[slobone]

I did Run msconfig and went to the startup tab. A lot of the programs listed there were things I knew I didn't care whether they started up at boot time or not, so I unchecke them. The ones that I didn't know what they were, I left alone.

But I can't say it made much difference. My startup was pretty reasonable to begin with.

 

[mike_n_herrin]

Spybot S&D will look at your startup list and tell you if anything there is questionable or is bad (colored yellow and red respectively). You can also uncheck things that aren't bad if you know you don't need them starting up at start up.

you can get it here: http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/Spybot_Search_and_Destroy/1043809773/1

you can get a walk through on how to use/install it here: http://www.foxware.com/security/spybot/spybot.htm

after you've done that, go to "mode" and switch to advanced mode. then click on settings near the bottom of the left hand column. after that you will see a line near the top of the left hand column that says "system startup." that will show you a list of things that start at start up. And you can uncheck the ones you don't want.

 

[operative_seven]

We've been using this little tool for the past few years and it works great

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=664

It's called Bootvis which was released by Microsoft but is no longer supported by them but the utility still works just fine.It will allow you to boot to a useable state in a total of aprox 30 seconds.


Also, here's a good webpage that has tips on Optimizing Windows XP:

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/OptimizeXP.html#Services

If you scroll down to almost the bottom of the page where the header reads "Boot", it will explain how to use the Microsoft Bootvis tool that I provided the link to.

 

[tmdonahue]

What are the "sure" methods of reducing windows startup time?

My bootup speed is annoyingly slow. I know there are a few tips n tricks for reducing the time it takes to reach the desktop from the initial power on.

But what are the most effective of these tricks or hacks?

My details:
Windows XP Home running on a 256RAM, 2.5Ghz P4 laptop (with wireless internet). The computer is used mostly for surfing and P2P.

I got a solid-state drive to replace my conventional disk drive. The SSDs have really come down in price. Wow, did that speed up everything, especially Windows boot.