Many users probably do not care about their computer’s boot time that much, it’s something that is done once or twice a day. This procedure can have an effect on the system performance as well which is where it becomes interesting for those users, too. Boot Computer tries to change this by providing you the tools you need to make your computer boot faster.

Boot Computer

Take the Windows Registry for example. It is loaded during computer startup to the computer memory where it stays until the computer is turned off. A larger Registry therefor takes up more computer memory than needed.

The tools:

• Boot Timer – We need an objective measurement for the computer startup time and Boot Timer does that for us.
• ERUNT NT Registry Optimizer – This tool compresses the Windows Registry safely making it smaller.
• Ultimate Defrag – defragments the hard drives of the computer
• CCleaner – Temporary Data Cleaner that reduces the used space on a hard drive.
• Startup Control Panel – Displays all programs and files that get executed during system start. The more – The slower.

Boot Computer Faster

Measuring Current Computer Startup Time:

We need to measure the current computer startup time before we make changes to the system. This will be our initial figure and everything that we tweak should reduce that figure. Download Boot Timer and execute it.

Boot Timer tells you that Windows has to reboot to measure boot time. Click Yes to reboot Windows right away. Boot Timer will display the boot time in seconds after the next system start is completed.

Write down the boot computer time. I usually take a sheet of paper and write the numbers down plus the changes that lead to them.

Now head over to the other sections, apply the things that I’m talking about if you feel comfortable doing so and run Boot Timer again to measure the difference. A good startup time is below 40 seconds, everything below that is great.

Analyzing Computer Startup Autorun Entries:

Most experienced users would suggest Autoruns for this task. Most users on the other hand do not need Autoruns, it scares and confuses them. Startup Control Panel has been designed with that in mind. You can only uncheck startup items that have been added by the user or programs that he installed. No harm to the system can be done.

My tip is to go through all tabs in the application and check if it is necessary that they are started with Windows. Most of the time it is not. The only things that should stay in there are the tools that you use regularly and security applications like virusscanners. Everything else can go and you probably won’t even see a difference when working in Windows.

Reduce the System Fonts:

Check the C:\WINDOWS\Fonts directory and count the fonts that are located in there. Everything below 100 is ok (Windows ships with 59 system fonts), if you got hundreds of fonts in there you might want to reduce them drastically. Every font is loaded during system startup and this can increase boot time by quite a large margin.

Check the list of Windows XP standard fonts. Those fonts should not be removed. Other applications may have added fonts as well. The best practice to remove fonts is to move those that you would delete to a temporary directory and continue working with the computer. Boot computer, start the usual applications and check if everything is looking normal.

Update Drivers:

Old device drivers might slow down the computer in general. It is therefor recommended to check the manufacturers website every now and then to see if any driver updates have been released. Especially the motherboard that powers the hard drives and connections to all system components has to be taken care of.

Windows Services:

Windows Services do not have such a huge impact on startup time which is surprising. It i still recommended to disable all services that are not needed on the system. Blackviper has a list of all Windows XP Services and recommended settings. Check out his page for all the information that you would ever need. Cautious users can skip the step.

Bios Tweaks:

A few settings in the computer Bios have an effect on the boot time. During system start, when the computer memory is shown press the PAUSE key and check the screen for any notifications on how to enter the computer Bios. It is usually Delete, ESC or one of the F-keys.

I would recommend to turn off any devices that are not installed or needed, especially floppy drives. You should also set the Quick Power on Self-Test option to enabled.

System Tweaks:

I could write a book about Windows System Tweaks. Some that might speed up computer startup are to set a static IP for the network card. This can interfere with other network settings though and it could mean that you cannot connect to a network or the Internet anymore because of the change. It is however easy to undo.

Right-click your network adapter and click Properties. The network adapter appears in Network Connections in the Windows Control Panel. Select TCP/IP and click on Properties. Now enter a static IP address, for example 192.168.1.1 and a Subnet Mask of 255.255.255.0.

Remove Temporary Files:

Run CCleaner and let it clear all the temporary files on the system. This is important for the defragmentation process of the hard drive that will be started afterward. It should not have a direct impact on system boot time.

Defragment Windows Registry:

You can save a few Megabytes by defragmenting the Windows Registry. Run ERUNT NT Registry Optimizer, let it optimize the Registry and reboot the computer. This reduces computer startup time if the Registry was fragmented.

Defragment Hard Drive

A defragmented hard drive performs read and write operations slower because it has to rotate more to find all the “pieces” of the file that gets loaded. Defragmentation can have a huge impact on overall system performance and computer startup time.

Run Ultimate Defrag and defragment all hard drives connected to the computer. Make sure you defragment the drive that Windows is located on. It does not hurt to defragment all drives but the Windows drive is the only one that affects system startup.

Did I miss anything? Let me know.

Starter is a sweat little application that was designed with usability in mind. It displays all softwares that are started during system startup displaying the information in a very convenient way. The left sidebar displays the possible locations and applications that are started from there while the right main window is displaying details about all softwares found in there.

The main window displays information about the location of the application, startup parameters and from where it is started. Right-clicking an entry displays a context menu with options to disable or delete it, perform a search on the Internet, launch it and to explore the file folder or registry.

The main question is of course which softwares can be securely removed from system startup. This is not that easy to answer. A rule of thumb would be to keep all security related entries, all entries that deal with hardware and get rid of the rest unless you use the software regularly and recognize a positive effect if it is started during system startup.

Starter lists all running processes in another tab offering better information than the Windows task manager. It displays for instance the path of the executable of the process, the priority, the memory usage and modules that are used by the process.

The third tab displays all Windows services sortable by many means. Started services use a green icon and a Running text next to them which improves usability here as well. Users can again use the right-click menu to stop and start services and set their status to automatic, manual or disabled.

The Internet search offers some unexpected features as well. The user has the choice to query several search engines instead of simply querying Google with the name of the service.

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Starter
via Freeware Genius