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Improving Windows Startup Times


The Count

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hey I folks I realised I have terrible Windows Startup Times and I need to do something about this, I've taken everything out of the Startup Start menu folder but no avail, it still goes slow anyway does anyone know how to speed up my start up times.

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Have a look down in your system tray in the bottom-right corner - where the clock is.

Chances are you've got stuff like MSN Messenger, Realplayer or Quicktime that start applications when Windows starts, that don't really need to be there. Open the apps that you don't 'need', and have a look in the preferences/options screens, there's probably a 'load when Windows starts' button you can click off.

I'd leave stuff like your firewall and anti-virus ON though (if you have them that is, if not, why not? :p ).

 

See how ya get on,

B.

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You can also have a look at enabling 'Standby' mode for your machine. If your machine's fairly modern and you do it right, everything in the computer switches off except the memory, so when you turn it back on everything's as you left it and you don't need to start up Windows at all.

 

WinXP/2000 includes a 'Hibernate' option which is similar, except everything including the memory gets turned off. You can enable it in the 'Power' thing in Control Panel. :~

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Your processor also plays a big part in startup time. Like the others said you can go in msconfig, but this will only affect your loading time while in windows, not before. You can modify your HL keys if you know what you're doing, but I'd strongly suggest not doing it.

 

 

Try using a boot speed up program like Wincleaner and Xsetup. You can find them usually in a search or @ http://www.astalavista.com

 

 

Good luck :cool:

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So far I have to agree with all of the above.

I keep my startups to an absolute bare minimum; shut off every service that I know I don't need; use the Boot Vis progam described by BCanr2d2; and tweak the BIOS to be in "Quick Boot" and "Silent Boot" mode.

Also make sure your drive is defragged properly, and check it thoughoughly for errors.

Run a spyware check progam to remove any resource leeching, and do a complete anti-virus/ trojan scan.

 

After all of that it still takes too long to boot, then: Backup/ Reformat/ Reinstall.

 

Links:

 

Using MSCONFIG: http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.htm

 

Disabling Services: http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

 

Boot Vis: http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,aid,108716,tk,sbx,00.asp

 

Checking your system: http://www.pcpitstop.com/

 

Getting rid of spyware: http://security.kolla.de/index.php?lang=en&page=download

http://www.lavasoft.de/support/download/

http://www.wilderssecurity.net/spywareblaster.html

http://www.winpatrol.com/

 

Online virus scan: http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

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out of interest, does anyone know how to stop the little blue Q icon loading into your system tray when you have quicktime installed?

 

I have turned it off in MSCONFIG a number of times, and it is ok for a few weeks, then it pops back up again...

 

...and this means i now have about 5 QT processes uncheck in MS config. :mad:

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Next time you go into MSCONFIG look at where it says the Quick Time file is located (for me it's: "C:\Program Files\Quick Time\QTTask.exe")

Go find that file, then drag it to the trash, or rename it "QTTask.OLD"

Personally, I trash it. Quick Time works just fine without it.

 

I do the exact same thing with "realsched" (the Real Player thing)too.

 

These files do come back if you reinstall or update the programs however, but it's an easy task to ditch them.

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