Configure Windows 7 Services To Start Delayed

If you are looking to speed up the startup of your Windows operating system then the following tip may be for your. You probably have already removed unnecessary startup items and tweaked some system settings and the Bios of the computer to improve the operating system’s startup time. You may also have disabled some system services that you do not need.

But did you know that it is also possible to delay the startup of services that you may need, but that are not required immediately on boot? Delayed startup has been introduced in Windows Vista, an different alternative has been available in previous versions of Windows. The following guide is based on Windows 7, options may vary on other operating systems.

Microsoft has configured some services to start delayed, Windows Update and Windows Font Cache Service are two configured that way.

To find out which services are delayed automatically press Windows-R, type services.msc and hit the enter key. Now click the startup type column of the window and locate services with the startup type Automatic (Delayed Start) in the table. These are the services that are delayed.

Only automatically starting services should be considered for a delayed startup, and here only those that are not needed during the system start and those that other services that are started depend on.

Look at the services that have the startup type set to automatic as they are the candidates for a delayed start. It is usually safe to change third party services from automatic to delayed start, for instance iTunes or video card related services.

It can be helpful to look at Blackviper’s Windows 7 services configuration listing to determine other candidates for delayed startup. All services that are recommended to be set to manual or disabled under Safe can usually be set to delayed startup without problems, providing that they do not have dependencies that are needed to start normally.

To change the startup type of a service right-click it in the services window and select properties.

Locate the startup type pulldown and select Automatic (Delayed Start) from the selection. This changes the startup type of the selected service. (via)

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Author: Martin Brinkmann, Thursday January 20, 2011 -
Tags:automatic delayed start, services, windows services, windows tips

Responses so far:

1. Jojo says:

   January 21, 2011 at 5:05 am

   I wish this could be done in WinXP!

   Reply
   • Martin says:

     January 21, 2011 at 9:53 am

     Maybe that’s is interesting? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/193888

     Reply
     • Jojo says:

       January 21, 2011 at 9:18 pm

       Hmm. Looks complex but interesting.