Boot time

[nanna]

So whenever I boot up windows, I always find myself counting the number of times that little set of 3 blue lines goes across it's little portion of the screen (clearly designed to let you know that windows is actually doing something, and to feign boredom while waiting for your computer to be functional).

I have noticed that the further from the installation of windows I get (weeks, months, years) the more times those 3 little lines seem to cross the screen before windows starts up for me (I'm sorry I'm not being very technical, but it is the only way I have to benchmark the amount of time it takes windows to start up).

When I first purchased this laptop around 4 months ago, it took between 5 and 7 trips across the screen to start, and now i find it takes around 14 to start. Is this because I simply have more programs and startup processes for it to think about now? or is there something I can do to help it start up faster?

does that make any sense?

thanks in advance

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Yes, it does make sense, and there are a number of things you can do to keep your startup time as it was when you installed Windows the first time.

• Keep your system clean of useless files - CCleaner is very helpful here.
  
• Defragment regularly - a professional tool such as Diskeeper can even defrag MFT, folder file, and page file.
  
• Remove unnecessary startup items - Startup Inspector is a widely used tool for this task.
  
• Uninstall hidden and duplicate device drivers.
  

Be sure to take a backup before you start to make big changes to your system.

[andsome]

Mine makes 11 passes. In startup inspector I have allowed 11 programs to start. The program gives information as to whether each program is essential on start up. You can always start programs later with a double click. You can safely disable things like Office, Acronis or other back up programs, Sun Java detect etc etc.

Total boot time on my desk top with 11 programs running is about 1 minute 40 seconds. I use Crap Cleaner regularly, and Diskeeper runs itself in the background every four hours.

[Scarecrow Man]

It all depends on what Windows is loading. When my Windows was brand new, it took 2-3 passes, now that I have loaded everything onto it and used it for a while, it takes 6-8 passes.

14 is a bit much. I would follow Pat's comments to see if that helps.

[catgate]

There's a lot of scientific accuracy in this. Or is it Boredom...or even impatience? I uses to switch mine on and go and have a lie down for a while until it got steam up.

[andsome]

There's a lot of scientific accuracy in this. Or is it Boredom...or even impatience? I uses to switch mine on and go and have a lie down for a while until it got steam up.

But it was W98 coal and steam wasn't it?

[catgate]

There's a lot of scientific accuracy in this. Or is it Boredom...or even impatience? I uses to switch mine on and go and have a lie down for a while until it got steam up.

But it was W98 coal and steam wasn't it?

Only the best for me!

[-pops-]

Not quite the same as catgate but, I switch my machines on in the morning and then go and make a cup of tea. By the time I'm back, everything is ready for me to start.

I should add that I do use all of the software that Pat Willener suggests as well.

[andsome]

The kettle won't boil in one minute 40 seconds. :D

[nanna]

Thanks all, you were very informative and helpfull :D

[nanna]

Oops, sorry for the double post. I just tried several of the ideas posted above, and found some interesting things compared to other posters.

What I did:

Tried startup inspector (awesome program by the way) - 8 programs on startup.

I use Spybot S&D to keep my startup processes down to a minimum (down to about 38 on a laptop, don't really want to lose any more)

If I wait for about half a month, I think i can get a legit license of diskeeper for free (well, free with my thousands of dollars of college tuition ;) ) so I'm going to hold off on that

stats to benchmark off of:

total startup time (from pushing the power button to being able to actually perform tasks on the computer): 56 seconds

total number of "crossings" of windows' 3 little whatever-they-are: 14

not sure if anyone finds that interesting or not

other things of note, i have it set to look for a cd to boot from first, which might cause it to startup slower by a little, but i feel like that is the safest way in case of emergency.

Let me know if anyone thinks that that is a lot of "crossings" for the startup time.

Thanks again

-nanna

[-pops-]

Haven't a clue how many crossings my machines make during bootup. Never been interested enough to count them :)

As stated previously, I switch on then go and make a cup of tea and by the time I come back, everything is ready to go. I keep the number of programs at startup to a minimum not so much to speed boot time but to reduce the amount of computer capacity being used by programs I might not need that day - I can always start them up if needed. There are, of course, some either essential to startup or that would be very unwise to do without. Startup Inspector sorts these out for me.

[djohn]

No need for it to chck the CD drive or floppy first these days and its quite safe to have your C: drive as first boot device, if anything goes wrong its quite easy to enter the BIOS and reset your CD drive as first boot. Saying this, some machines built by the bigger suppliers will always revert back to CD drive as first boot even if you alter and save in BIOS as I found out a couple of weeks back when formatting my lads HP laptop.

[nanna]

Excellent. I know for a fact that Acer allows you to skip the CD check because I specifcally changed the settings to get it to check the CD drive first (a friend recomended this because he felt it was safer).

Thanks for the info. I still find it interesting that the computer is up and running in under a minute, but that what seems like a very significant portion of that time is that black windows startup screen.

[djohn]

As soon as I get the time to transfer all the data from my previous machines hard drives to my new one I will post a link here on an excellent guide from [Tom's Hardware] I found last year explaining how you can turn off many things in the BIOS that are not needed and will shave anything from 5 to 20 seconds off boot time deppending on how long it takes prior the the tuning.

I had mine down to 23 seconds with 19 Gb of programs/applications on the C: drive, this was to fully working desktop and connected to the net. This new machine is about 5 times more powerful and really does shift, but with a bit more fine tuning I shall be flying along.

[andsome]

What are you doing with the time that you have saved?

[nanna]

What are you doing with the time that you have saved?

Anything I want.

With all seriousness, keeping startup time low just seems like it should be something that I should be able to do quickly without serious effort, and makes life just a little bit better (not to have to sit and wait forever for the computer to start.

The really short answer to your question is: Snood.

[djohn]

I agree nanna. I also like a quick boot time and shut down. From hitting the 'Turn Off' button my machine closes down in 7 seconds or less but I always close down open programs/applications first which just leaves 31 processes running in the background.

[nanna]

Well, I have some bad news (for me at least). Somehow, after all of that, I am up to 17 crossings before it loads windows' settings (although it still takes under a minute for total startup time). I just don't understand how I could gain 3 crossings in a day and a half, after actively taking steps to decrease startup time.

I run CCleaner, Try to keep it defragmented, have only 8 apps on startup (34 processes), but yet I just tried it and it seems to have gotten slower (I feel like slow is a relative word here, because under a minute is still very good, I am just upset that my efforts have turned on me)

[-pops-]

Please don't take this the wrong way but, I find there are more interesting and important things to do with a computer than count the number of passes that a progress bar makes during bootup.

As I wrote earlier, I have no idea how many passes this bar makes on my machines. I'm not even aware that it's there most of the time. If the boot time was 20 minutes (as I've heard some machines are) then, yes, that would be cause for some investigation.

I am reminded somewhat of a thread in another forum a long time ago where someone was extolling the virtues of a program that cut fifteen seconds off the loading time of Adobe Reader. Now, for me this program opens in about ten seconds anyway so, would it have loaded before I requested if I had installed this extra piece? Nevertheless, this "time saver" was eagerly downloaded by lots of the forum members.