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My Windows XP is getting a bit slow in terms of bootup speed nowadays. Also, when I first click on My Computer item, it takes a while to get it out.

I am thus thinking about the tricks to speed up the booting.

A quick google search can turn up a lot of results, and a lot of tricks. One of the tricks is to use msconfig to reduce the startup item. But I have done that, and filtering out unwanted program. Still I think it's slow.

The question now is, is there a tool that tells me exactly what is slowing down my computers, and how to optimize the speed?

Graviton
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There is a tool called "Bootvis": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BootVis

Bootvis uses in Windows XP built-in routines to analyse your system and rearrange files on your harddrive (see comments). Although these routines are performed periodically by Windows XP, my experience with Bootvis is that it helps speeding up boottimes on Windows XP installations that are running for a while (months or even years).

For your "also" part of the question: I think it will not speed up the start of "My computer". You might try to clean any networking history you might have on your PC for that.

Jorrit Reedijk
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  • Clean networking history... not very clear here. – Graviton May 04 '09 at 07:44
  • You can remove history via: "Start > Settings > Taskbar and Startmenu" "Tab Start Menu > Customize > Clear" and remove networkprinters that are not connected. – Jorrit Reedijk May 04 '09 at 07:52
  • From the MS site about bootvis: "Contrary to some published reports, Bootvis.exe cannot reduce or alter a system's boot or resume performance. The boot optimization routines invoked by Bootvis.exe are built into Windows XP." -- http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/sysperf/fastboot/default.mspx – David Schmitt May 04 '09 at 07:56
  • Thanks, I'll make sure I get my terminology right next time :) – Jorrit Reedijk May 04 '09 at 07:59
  • @Jorrit: It might help if you just delete the first two paragraphs and the first sentence of the third paragraph. They're just confusing, since they first claim a untruth and then admit that you are aware of telling a falseness too. – David Schmitt May 04 '09 at 10:10
  • @David: if you think Bootvis should not be used, be my guest to use a downvote (time will tell). Meanwhile, the answer is edited to address the question more clearly. – Jorrit Reedijk May 04 '09 at 10:53
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    On the matter of My Computer, it might be an idea to look through the explorer settings too. I for example like to turn off the automatic scanning for network printers and such. Something else that takes tiiiime is when external usb/firewire drives have to spin up. Which is very annoying... – Svish May 04 '09 at 12:20
  • Where do I find the explorer settings? – Joel in Gö May 04 '09 at 12:58
  • @Joel: Windows Explorer. Menu: Tools > Folder Options. Tab: View – Jorrit Reedijk May 04 '09 at 15:07