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Are there any specific known steps which I could take to make my computer with Windows XP Professional booting faster?
I am interested in speeding up following stages in particular:
Suma
Posted 2009-10-01T10:48:15.933
Reputation: 1 307
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You could try profiling your startup time to see what exactly is taking such a long time. This will help you better figure out what to reduce. There's a question regarding this on SuperUser.
alex
Posted 2009-10-01T10:48:15.933
Reputation: 16 172
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The quickest thing you can do is to click Start then run and type "msconfig" go to the Startup tab and disable everything. Reboot and reinstate them one by one until your computer is faster - by using this method, you will be able to see what is taking longest.
You can also go to the services tab and disable there. Services such as AV programs are usually the most to blame for slow start up times.
If you want more control over the startup and see exactly what is running from any location on your system, I highly advise you use the Autoruns program from Microsoft Sysinternals.
William Hilsum
Posted 2009-10-01T10:48:15.933
Reputation: 111 572
Disable services, even AV programs, what a good advice. – Bender – 2009-10-01T11:28:07.770
This tool is great to know what is running, but it gives me no idea how much time is consumed by individual items. Boot Profiling utilities seems a lot more useful. – Suma – 2009-10-01T11:30:50.747
Sorry, but your question was how to make the computer start faster, not how can I see what processes are taking up what time.... – William Hilsum – 2009-10-01T11:35:34.590
Yes, but for this knowing what processes are taking time is extremely useful. There are too many processes and services started for me to decide which I perhaps might not need (and disable them). Boot profiler allows me to concentrate on disabling those where I can gain most. – Suma – 2009-10-01T11:48:58.417
Then you just upvote and accept the one that helps you the most - in my opinion, it is bad to downvote when someone gives an answer if it is on topic and useful just because someone else is better (I am guessing it was you as it was within a few seconds of your comment) – William Hilsum – 2009-10-01T11:58:23.967
Just get angry when I try to help someone it is as if they don't appreciate it... – William Hilsum – 2009-10-01T11:58:55.230
I am sorry, I would undo my downvote, but it is no longer possible. I hope you are not really that much angry because of two rep points lost? – Suma – 2009-10-01T12:05:03.843
This conversation should be on MSO. No, I couldn't care less about reputation - it is just what it represents. I just think it is bad to down vote someone who helps and gives a valid answer - just because someone else is better... it just looks like you don't appreciate people going to the trouble of trying to help you. – William Hilsum – 2009-10-01T12:11:34.640
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Microsoft once created a tool for this: BootVis http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/sysperf/fastboot/default.mspx
thijs
Posted 2009-10-01T10:48:15.933
Reputation: 283
Note: MS no longer offers BootVis for download, but you can find it at many public download sites, including http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/System-Tweak/BootVis.shtml
– Suma – 2009-10-01T11:50:28.8330
Use Soluto.
Mehper C. Palavuzlar
Posted 2009-10-01T10:48:15.933
Reputation: 51 093
It seems Soluto might be very handy for WinXP. However, I have changed a computer to Win7 meanwhile and I find Soluto misleading. The computer is ready to use far sooner than Soluto reports, as Win7 have their own delayed starting of background applications, and using Soluto for this brings very little real gain, if any. – Suma – 2011-01-19T09:31:19.163
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After cleaning up run either:
rundll32 advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks
or
defrag C: -b
Both defragment boot files in logical order destroyed by each Service Pack.
You might want pagedfrg.exe from Sysinternals to make registry into one fragment and contig.exe to defragment disk structures like MFT$.
ZaB
Posted 2009-10-01T10:48:15.933
Reputation: 2 365
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A list of utilities which I have found absolutely unnecessary for me, and I guess many users may see the same:
Suma
Posted 2009-10-01T10:48:15.933
Reputation: 1 307
Testing this utility right now, and testing bootvis from Microsoft as well. Besides of things specific to my system I guess there will be some general tips to give (like disabling Java Quick Starter) once I am done. – Suma – 2009-10-01T11:29:31.963
@Suma there are always things to improve boot time. Running msconfig will show you all the apps that start at boot time. If it's not vital, I suggest you disable it (but check to see what it does before that). With services it's a bit trickier; I suggest you leave them as they are, since stopping the wrong ones can have negative consequences. – alex – 2009-10-01T12:28:29.477