Do I have slow Windows XP startup?

[bagelred]

OK, I've had my system almost 4 years now and I probably could use a clean install. But anyway, one area that I wanted to test was the actual starting time it takes to boot up my system. So I timed everything.

Here are specifications:

Windows XP Professional
Intel Pentium 4 chip, 3.0 GHZ
1 GB Memory
80 GB Hard Drive, less than half full
Dell Dimension Desktop 3000
Startup Items: Kaspersky Internet Security Suite and that's it

So I did a Restart and timed it. I'll do it tomorrow morning as well as a 2nd test but, here's times shown in minutes and seconds, times show the START of each process:

- .16 "Windows XP" Black Screen Loading
- .48 Blue Screen, "Windows XP"
- .55 "Welcome" screen, Windows theme plays
- 1:05 My desktop appears/bottom of screen taskbar, taskbar icons not showing
- 1:39 Bottom taskbar, taskbar icons "kick in" showing
- 1:48 Sound icon appears bottom right
- 2:22 Kaspersky Icon appears, bottom right
can't do anything, stuck
- 3:06 Unstuck, I push Firefox Icon
- 3:25 "Computer Might Be at Risk" Icon on bottom right appears (it will disappear soon)
- 4:16 Firefox finally opens, system seems generally ready to go

Too slow? Normal? I will test again tomorrow morning when I start "fresh" and Kaspersky has to do updates to see how long everything takes........


Thanks. Thoughts?

 

[KSoD]

Slow. Go throught this:

http://www.osiris-spywareguide.com/

 

[Thorn]

4 minutes for firefox?

I'm gonna say yeah, that's slow.

 

[oldskool]

A computer with those specs and everything, yeah that seems about right. Well on an older machine that is.

It also depends on how many startup programs there are. You could change the preferences on those to speed things up a bit.

If you like, you could go ahead with a fresh install except make sure you back everything you want saved first (data files such as music, movies, pictures you want saved, etc.). That can make it like new sometimes. It has worked for me before.

 

[KSoD]

Oldie,

My old desktop was a P4 and it took about 2 minutes from pressing the power button to a working desktop. That was with Vista Ultimate. So 4 minutes on XP is slow. Even with only 1GB that is slow. XP only needs 128Mb to run and 256MB recommended. So 1GB would be more than sufficent.

 

[oldskool]

Hmmm, I never really timed this computer but maybe it is closer to two, who knows. I was estimating that mine might take about 4, but now I wonder. Next time I boot this up, I will check and see.

 

[bagelred]

Is it Kaspersky that's really slowing down the beginning? Maybe I'll shut Kaspersky off and try again....

I first pushed Firefox button after 3 minutes, because it was sort of stuck after Kaspersky first came on. But even so, I don't think I could get Firefox working before, let's say, 3 1/2 minutes tops.....

Maybe I'll try it.....

And MAK, btw, I do most of those procedures in that guide already. But I'll definitely go thru it......

 

[KSoD]

It could be Kaspersky. Best option is to disable it via msconfig and see if it helps.

 

[bagelred]

Well, I wanted to do another test with Kaspersky off, so I go in Startup and turn it off....But of course, Kaspersky simply started itself. But better results anyway:

- .15 "Windows XP" Black Screen Loading
- .47 Blue Screen, "Windows XP"
- .53 My desktop appears
- .59 Sound icon appears bottom right
- 1:14 I push Firefox Icon
- 1:30 Kaspersky Icon appears, bottom right
- 2:23 "Computer Might Be at Risk" Icon on bottom right appears (it will disappear soon)
- 3:06 Firefox finally opens, system seems generally ready to go

Better. I don't understand why Kasp turned itself on. I pushed Firefox as soon as I felt I was able. First test system was stuck so really couldn't push Firefox until 3 minute mark.

- .15 "Windows XP" Black Screen Loading
- .48 Blue Screen, "Windows XP"
- .53 Windows Music plays
- 1.03 My desktop appears, no icons on taskbar
- 1.35 icons appear on taskbar
- 1.40Sound icon appears bottom right
- 2.02 I push Firefox Icon
- 2.33 Kaspersky Icon appears, bottom right
- 3:56 Firefox finally opens, system seems generally ready to go
- 4.13 "Computer Might Be at Risk" Icon on bottom right appears (it will disappear soon)

Test #3, closer to Test #1

In Test #2 and #3, it took Firefox almost a full 2 minutes from the time I clicked the icon until the time the homepage showed in the browser.

 

[S0ULphIRE]

Download CCleaner, run the registry cleaner (as well as the normal cleaner)

Stop Kaspersky loading using CCleaner (there's an area which shows programs that are running on startup, just disable kaspersky)

Download CCleaner 2.23.999 - FileHippo.com