Speed up boot time basics

Speed up boot time , It’s a known fact that a new computer or freshly installed Windows operating system will boot faster than a system which has been in place for a while.
Even a new installation of Windows is still not as fast as it could be.
Neither of these systems has been optimized, and the older system has to also contend with all kinds of processes and applications which have since been installed and load themselves on boot up.
What can we do?
Firstly let’s get hold of an application which can help us to optimize our system start-up. A good free utility is Microsoft Tweak UI which can be downloaded from here.
Optimizing your pc is generally a pretty safe procedure, but we still recommend you make a backup of your system beforehand.

To begin

The BIOS
Many BIOS’s have a quick boot feature, this is where the pc does not perform such in-depth POST checks, and makes quite a difference even before we get to loading Windows.
To get into your BIOS your P C will prompt you on start which key to press for SETUP usually F2 or Del, once you’re in the BIOS simply select Quick Boot.

There are many more tuning option for the BIOS that will help to speed up boot time but unless you’re really familiar with it, this can cause issues.

MSCONFIG
From the Run menu Launch MSCONFIG
Boot.ini tab change Timeout from 30 sec to 3 sec, don’t go too low as you may still need to get to the boot menu one day.

Disabling Unused Devices
Windows device drivers are another source of boot slowness, to rectify this..

Launch System either from Control Panel or by right clicking on My Computer and selecting properties.

Select the hardware tab and Device Manager, Double click on each device description to expand and now Right Click and Disable any device that you do not need to use, as a rule of thumb, any device you are not sure of leave enabled. Disabled devices will already have a red cross on them.

If you need to re-enable a device simply right click on it and the disable will have changed to enable. If you are unsure of any services to disable, presume its needed, As every computer uses a different list of services click on any service for more information, so you can disable to suite your needs.

Windows Services Definitions visit our indepth page

A
AdobeLM Service, Alerter, Application Management, Automatic Updates

C
ClipBook, Computer Browser, Cryptographic Services

D
Distributed Transaction Service, DNS Client

E
Error Reporting Service

F
Fast User Switching Compatibility, FTP Publishing

H
Help and Support, HTTP SSL, Human Interface Device Access

I
IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service, Indexing Service, InstallDriver Table Manager, IPSEC Services

M
MS Software Shadow Copy Provider

N
Net Logon, NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing, Network Provisioning Service, NT LM Security Support Provider, NVIDIA Display Driver Service Office Source Engine

P
Portable Media Serial Number Service, Print Spooler, Protected Storage

R
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager, Remote Procedure Call Locator, Remote Registry, Removable Storage, Routing and Remote Access

S
Secondary Logon, Security Accounts Manager, Security Center, Server, Smart Card, SSDP Discovery Service

T
Task Scheduler, TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper, Telnet, Terminal Services

U
Uninterrupted Power Supply, Universal Plug and Play Device Host, User Privilege Service

V
Volume Shadow Copy

W
Windows Firewall Internet Connection Sharing or ICS, Windows Image Acquisition WIA, Windows Media Connect, Windows Media Connect WMC Helper, Windows Messenger, Windows Time. Wireless Zero Configuration, WMI Performance Adapters, Workstation

Routine defragmentation
The first time a computer is defragmented, it may take a while, but after this running every week it will only take around 10 minutes, by defragmenting your hard drive you system will be able to load files quicker, so will not only speed up boot time , but will also speed up launching applications and files. Later versions of Disk keeper defragmenting tools offer silent defragmenting whenever your system is idle, a free 30 day demo can be downloaded from Disk Keeper.

Also keeping your pc free from spyware and viruses will also help to speed up boot time .

Standby and hibernation
For the fastest way to speed up boot time is maybe cheating a little, but standby mode enables you to power up and down your pc very quickly, but it still uses power even when it appears to be off.

Hibernation is slower than system standby, but still much quicker than a complete cold boot, unlike standby mode it does not use any power once in hibernation.

A big plus point when using standby or hibernation is the ability to leave applications open when going using either, although if you store files on a network save them before. Do not use standby or hibernation if you are using a roaming profile.

To use and enable standby or hibernation, go to control panels, power saving, now choose your power settings.

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