Tips/Tricks/Reccommendations to Decrease Start-up Time?

[cpu11]

Hi everyone. I'm looking to learn all the things I can do to decrease the time from when I push the power button to when I can actually use my computer.

How I measure this is the time from when I push the power button to when the desktop shows up and when FireFox opens (I have to click the icon.) Right now, I'm at avg. 55 sec. for desktop to show-up and another 35 sec. after that for FF to launch. This is a total of avg 90 sec. from power button push to internet connectivity.

I've read where folks can get launches in half this time. I'd love to be able to do this, but any significant improvement is welcome. I know my time is not THAT BAD, but it's kind of become a challenge to see how fast I can get it.

So far, I've downloaded and ran CCleaner several times and Defragmentation with the Windows utility and then 2 more times with Defraggler (I heard it works better than the stock program in Windows). The results have made the overall window-opening, etc, faster, but not the start-up.

What else do you recommend? Feel free to post your own speed, preferably measured the same way I measure mine (to keep things in the same perspective).

I'm running Windows Vista, 32-bit, 360GB harddrive, 3GB ram, 2Ghz processor.

I also have a BootSkin, which is a picture that displays in place of the windows loading bar, and an animated 3D desktop background.

Sorry for the long-winded post and thanks for your help with my goal.

 

[aikbix]

You can take a look at this:

TweakHound - Tweaking Windows Vista, page 8

You may also want to try running "chkdsk" in the Command Prompt. Also try looking at what you have enabled under "Startup" after typing "msconfig" in Run on your start menu.

Do you have Windows Vista updated to the latest service pack?

 

[riefler]

a program I use : Soluto

I find it very helpfull

 

[KSoD]

You dont need any 3rd party program. You dont want to go and start disabling services. You can easily turn off one that you need and not even realize it.

What you need to do is this:

Start>Run>msconfig

Turn off all of your programs except yoru Anti-Virus protection. The only service you should disable is the Windows Media Player Network Sharing.

 

[cpu11]

I'm kind of weary about deleting too many things from the start-up menu.....I might get rid of the wrong thing and then not have it start at all.

KsOD, could you please clarify your post. You say not to disable services, but then you say to go into msconfig and turn almost all of them off. Could you explain the difference?

Thanks for all of your help.

 

[KSoD]

In my post I say to disable programs from starting up. I dont say to disable the services. There are multiple tabs in the msconfig screen. You want to choose the Programs Tab and disable all but the Anti-virus. This will speed up your boot time by not having as many applications startup when you boot.

 

[aikbix]

You dont want to go and start disabling services. You can easily turn off one that you need and not even realize it.

While you are right, there is quite a bit of startup time that can be squeezed out of Windows by disabling services. As long as you double check what some of the guides recommended you disable you should be in the clear. To stay on the safe side, you can always just set unwanted services to "manual" if you don't want to disable them completely.

 

[KSoD]

But the guides dont know what you do on your system. So how do they know what services you need? They dont. I have seen such guides tell you to disable a service, not realizing that it also will disable another service like the printer spool and then you cant print anymore. The guides are not complete and they do not know what services are hooked to other services. They only know what that 1 service is. They do not realize that it can also be linked to another service that uses that specific service.

Case in point, svchost.exe in Vista and Win7. Open up the task manager and see how many of them are active at any given time. Then try and find out what they are all linked to. You will see that each one is linked to several different services and by disabling just 1 of those services you cripple the svchost.exe and possibly your system.

These guides do not tell you that, they do not tell you that by disabling this service you can prevent your system from doing what you want at some later point in time leaving you coming back to the site wondering why you cant do said item. Just to find out later that it was all cause you went and disabled these services that this guide told you to just to save a few seconds on your boot.

Case in point. One of the services it tells you to disable is the Windows Error Reporting. That is one of the biggest mistakes i have ever seen. How do you know what is going wrong if you disable the one service that can tell you? The Windows Error Reporting service is invaluable to finding out what programs or drivers are causing your system problems. That leaves the person left with a dysfunctional system with no way of finding out why. So you save yourself 5 seconds on boot but can never figure out why you continue to get random shutdowns.

It is ill advised to tell someone to save 5 seconds on their boot which could also prevent their system from doing other tasks. I have seen it before from people following such guides as the one posted and the ones on Black Viper's site as well. Save yourself the hassle and wait the extra 5 seconds. In the end you will be happier with your system doing what you want when you want.

 

[cpu11]

You want to choose the Programs Tab and disable all but the Anti-virus. This will speed up your boot time by not having as many applications startup when you boot.

I clearly see what you mean now. There's not "programs tab", but I think you are talking about the "startup tab." Thanks a lot. I will give it a try and see what happens.

 

[cpu11]

I tried Soluto and this is what it showed: ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting
.

It looks like the majority of my boot time is due to windows and my antivirus. I wonder is disabling items in msconfig would still work for me?

Thanks for the help.