 | Fixing Slow Bootup Time
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Are you aging noticeably while waiting for your computer to boot up? There are some things you can do to reduce this time.
Slow bootup time can be caused by inefficiency in one or more of the following areas:
1) Auto-Starting Services
Too many services starting on bootup will slow your computer down. Not all services are created equal, and performance degradation varies from service to service.
2) Auto-Starting Applications
These are the culprits usually responsible for bootup performance problems. All of these applications are executed when Windows starts. In Windows XP, you can use msconfig to significantly reduce startup times.
3) User Profile Data
If user profile data is corrupt, damaged, or missing it may critically slow down your bootup time. Sometimes it can take ten minutes or more to start a computer that has this type of problem.
4) Device Drivers
Poorly written device drivers can considerably slow down system loading time. If you think this may be the case, try uninstalling suspected hardware from your computer. Or, alternatively, download and install the latest device drivers from the Internet.
5) Winlogon or Explorer shim components
Viruses and some unorthodox anti-virus products will create substitute (or “shim”) programs that wrap system components. In these situations, it’s inevitable that your bootup time will be longer. If you suspect this may the case, remove the offending anti-virus programs and/or scan for viruses.
6) Hard Drive (Hardware Level) Performance
When your computer starts up, it needs to access a large amount of information from the hard drive. Device drivers and core system files need to be loaded into memory from disk before you can start using Windows. If your hard drive is aging, or simply slow, this process can lead to a performance bottleneck.
7) Hard Drive Disk Fragmentation
Ideally (and this is true in newer versions of Windows), system files and drivers should be shrouded from the process of fragmentation. However, auto-starting applications are usually not protected in this way. Severe disk fragmentation can cause a noticeable slow down in performance. Defragment often and you will be rewarded with a quicker start time.
8) CPU Performance
As well as reducing normal system performance, a very slow CPU can add lots of time to your bootup. For most users, however, this is not the source of their startup troubles.
9) BIOS Settings
Fine tuning the BIOS can shave several seconds from your bootup time by removing unnecessary checks and diagnostics.