Profile is not a tool you install, or run from the command line. Instead, profile is an option you add to your grub configuration file to inform the boot loader you want to create a profile  during the next boot loading sequence. In this article I am going to show you how to profile your grub boot sequence for a faster boot process.

How this works

When you boot up your machine Grub does a search for all the necessary drivers to load. This takes time. Instead of making Grub search for these drivers, the profiling actually makes Grub remember every driver necessary to work, thereby cutting down all of the driver load times.

This is a proven technique that can help the boot process. It has actually been around since Ubuntu 6.04, so it has been tested and tested and does work. I will make this normal disclaimer. Even though Grub profile works, anytime you deal with your bootloader you take the chance that you can render your machine unbootable. So you use this tool at your own risk. Don’t take that to mean profile is a dangerous tool and your machine will wind up bricked and mocking you…that is just to say should something happen, you were warned.

How to add profiling

To do this you are going to have to modify your /etc/default/grub file. The edits are not challenging at all. So, open up a terminal window and get ready to work.

The line you are looking for is:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash”

This is the line that gives the options to Grup upon boot. You need to add one more option to that line so it now looks like:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash profile”

Save that file and then issue the command:

sudo update-grub2

You are ready to reboot your machine.

During this next boot time you will see a noticeable SLOW DOWN. This is normal because Grub is now running the profile. This is quite necessary.

Once the boot up is complete, open up that /etc/default/grub file, remove the profile entry you just added, and re-run the command sudo update-grub2. Now reboot your machine again and see if you don’t notice a distinct speed increase in your boot times.

Final thoughts

There are so many ways to speed up the boot process of your Ubuntu Linux machine. This process, however, is one of the ones that will truly speed up the process and is tested and safe to use. You should gain some noticeable increases and should even speed up after 2 or 3 more start ups.

Windows update will prompt to restart the computer so that the updates can be applied. The Internet is full of users who complain about this feature as it has interrupted work or other computer activities with some stating that they lost work because of the reboot.

windows update

Some operating systems might provide an option to postpone the restart by 10 minutes, 1 hour or 4 hours. This can be repeated if the prompt reappears.

Three options are available to turn off the automatic restart of the PC after new Windows updates have been downloaded to the computer system. Please note that turning of Automatic Updates is not recommended and therefor not an option that we will discuss here.

Option 1: Stopping the Windows Update Service

This is a temporary solution. It will stop the service that is responsible for downloading and installing updates in Windows. Stopping the service will stop the automatic restart prompt in that session. The command has to be issued at the command line or by stopping the service in the services configuration menu.

To open the command open the Start Menu, click on All Programs, locate Accessories, right-click the command prompt entry and select to run it as an administrator. Please note that the path to the command prompt entry might differ depending on the Windows version installed.

Now enter the command net stop wuauserv and hit enter. A message should be displayed that states that the Windows Update Service was stopped successfully.

stop windows update service

It is also possible to issue the command shutdown -a to prevent a shutdown if the shutdown window is already displayed (windows will shut down in ..).

Option 2: Using Group Policies

Group Policies are not available in all editions of Microsoft Windows. It is usually the Home and Basic editions that do not offer this.

Windows XP: Available only in Windows XP Professional
Windows Vista: Available in Windows Vista Business and Ultimate / Enterprise
Windows 7: Available in Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate

The Group Policy Editor can be started by clicking on start and typing in gpedit.msc in the run box. Windows XP users need to select Run first and enter the filename afterwards.

Use the left sidebar to navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update.

no auto-restart automatic updates

Locate the No auto-restart with logged on users for scheduled automatic updates installations. Right-click the entry and select Edit from the menu. This opens a new window. Select Enable to activate the option.

Specifies that to complete a scheduled installation, Automatic Updates will wait for the computer to be restarted by any user who is logged on, instead of causing the computer to restart automatically.

If the status is set to Enabled, Automatic Updates will not restart a computer automatically during a scheduled installation if a user is logged in to the computer. Instead, Automatic Updates will notify the user to restart the computer.

Setting this to enabled will prevent the automatic restart of the PC for as long as the user is logged into the system.

disable restart after windows update

Please note that this entry might be different depending on the Windows version. The above is valid for Windows 7 Professional.

Option 3: Configuring the Windows Registry

The last option to change the Windows Update behavior permanently is located in the Windows Registry. Open the Windows Registry by clicking the start button and typing in regedit in the run form. This opens the Registry Editor.

Locate the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU. If it does not exist create it.

Create a New Dword (32-bit) and name it NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers. Set the value to 1 to turn the feature on. Please note that this will change the automatic restart window to display an option to postpone the restart. This feature is already enabled in Windows 7 which is why Windows 7 users do not need it. Windows XP users on the other hand get an option to postpone the updates.

Bonus: Software for the lazy

Several programs have been created to automate some of the processes above. The freeware Turn Off Windows Update Restart Nag for instance turns of the Windows Update service when it is executed. Another software is Automatic Reboot Remover (officially only working on Windows XP)

How to do you handle automatic restarts after updates in Windows?

iReboot makes rebooting into different operating systems more comfortable by providing the selection screen in the operating system. All a user would need to do to reboot the computer and load another operating system (or the same one) would be to select the operating system from the system tray icon.

The iReboot software would handle the rest. This means that users do not have to pay attention to the boot process, great for a quick stroll to the kitchen or restroom.

The program to reboot computers into different operating systems has a small memory footprint (roughly 2 Megabytes). It provides access to its features from the Windows system tray (iReboot via Into Windows)

When you’ve been working on your computer for a day or two and it’s starting to slow down and is struggling to open the start menu then it’s probably time to reset. Resetting clears the RAM and gets the system running fresh again.

The Anonymous writer of Shipping Seven also had this suggestion:

Windows occasionally gets into a weird state where, well, things just stop working – the start menu doesn’t launch some apps anymore, clicking links in Internet Explorer doesn’t work, context menus stop working, etc.*

Instead of rebooting Windows to get things working again, try logging out and logging back in. When Windows (and the apps that plug into the Windows shell) get into some weird state, you don’t need to reboot; a logoff shuts down the Windows Explorer, and a logon loads it again.

This used to happen to me every now and again, but since SP1 It hasn’t happened once.

Alternatively there is a much easier way to get your computer running smoothly again and remove all the idle processed.

• Create a new shortcut on the desktop
• In the input field type:

“%windir%\system32\rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks”

• Click ‘next’ and name the shortcut.
• When this shortcut is run the system should stop for a few seconds as it reclaims RAM before speeding up again as you use it.

Hope you find this useful.

The shutdown is almost immediate which means it is much faster than the shutdown with the usual registry tweaks that can be applied to reduce the timeout delay for processes. The freeware runs fine on Windows Vista and XP, you should just be aware that Superfast Shutdown ignores everything that is still open and running. This could mean that you loose data that has not been saved. Make sure you save everything important before you activate the shutdown option.

Installing the freeware adds two shortcuts to your desktop. The first is called superfast shutdown and the second superfast reboot. Both options are great if you think that the normal shutdown and reboot procedure takes to long. Again, make sure that everything important is saved before you click on the shortcuts.

Why reboot is freeware and only 60k in size. What it does is that it will give you a listing of operations that windows will perform after rebooting. (those are the operations that the newly installed software wants to perform).