Application Startup Timer (via How To Geek) can deliver that proof by measuring the startup time of applications. The application opens and closes a a selected application and logs the startup time of the application in a log file. This provides information about the performance gains when run before and after optimizing an application.

The application’s interface requires some explanation. The first field named Application has to point to an application on the system. The second called Cmd Line is optional and can be used to execute command line parameters. Log File points to a log file on the computer’s hard drive while Window Name has to contain part of the window’s name so that the application startup timer can automatically close the window.

The first three check boxes determine how the application is detecting the window of the application that is currently tested while the last three check boxes determine how the benchmarking software should close the application window. The values shown in the screenshot should work fine for most applications.