How do I boot up to Windows faster?

Yet another computer question from me....

I completley crashed my HD and I just finished installing a brand spankin' new one. Now that I'm reloading all my software, I notice that the computer sits for a VERY long time (I'm talking nearly a full minute and a half) on the startup screen before launching windows.

I remember well over a year ago I had done something that made it last just a few seconds before loading XP. For the past few hours I've been racking my brain but I can't exactly remember the exact way I altered the startup files to do it....

Any help?

Ok you need the program called bootvis go to these two webpages to get more info.
http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/BootVis-Download-3465.html
and
http://www.freepctech.com/pc/xp/xp00118.shtml

Not sure about making the box boot faster, but what I do is that I use standby mode on my desktop to suspend-to-RAM (or suspend-to-disk if you prefer, also known as hibernation). The PC consumes very little power and is instantly available (standby) the next time I need it to fire up quickly.

Linux? -- that's what I'm finally doing. If you're not a big gamer then this is a very good solution now. UBUNTU -- it's free as is the open source office package -- reads and writes both word and excel documents. You can surf -- whatever, and it is much less prone to virus attacks!

Buy a Mac.

Sorry, I couldn't resist. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

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KevinL said:
Not sure about making the box boot faster, but what I do is that I use standby mode on my desktop to suspend-to-RAM (or suspend-to-disk if you prefer, also known as hibernation). The PC consumes very little power and is instantly available (standby) the next time I need it to fire up quickly.

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how does one do this?

i have my hibernation turned off, but, it still takes a minute or two to restart after being idle (screen saver has started).

annoying!

Bob

I've gone to "start", then "run" and type in "msconfig". Hit "enter". A menu pops up. Click on the "startup" tab. From there, you can check or uncheck what programs you want to automatically start when you start your machine. Its pretty clear that many of the programs you see don't need to be checked. If you uncheck something and regret it, all you have to do is go back and check it. The point is that by reducing the number of programs that automatically start, you reduce the time it takes for your machine to boot.

If a computer guru tells you that I don't know what I'm talking about, believe them. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif But it works for me and is safe because its reversible.

best regards

That is strange indeed, normally if my computer is running at full power with the screensaver on, just the slightest mouse movement will immediately throw me back to the password prompt.

You'll know if your computer is coming out of hibernation because you will see the words "RESUMING WINDOWS" at the bottom of your screen followed by a scrolling progress bar.

As for standby, when I attempt to shut down the computer, the dialog box presents me with a number of choices including a "Standby" option. Select that to stand by.

To bring the computer out of that mode, I hit any key on my keyboard or press any mouse button and the monitor starts warming up again.

Even on ' standby ' mode, my laptop needs to be rebooted and have to restart Windows all over again. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif
Any help??

What powernoodle said will help. Here is a web page with some excellent tweaks also.
Black Viper XP Tweaks

one thing that can slow a bootup on a computer is virus scanning software.... some of it has settings to scan system files and system memory for viruses on bootup. I disabled some of the settings as I am fairly careful not to be infected so I don't generally need all the extra scanning.

Be carefull when using msconfig since, for some magical reason, it somehow allows you to do disable vital processes and services. Don't disable anything you don't know there...

Another cheer for powernoodles suggestion. I do the same thing with my computer and have never had a problem. If you are not sure what one of the programs on the startup tab is doing, "Google-it" to see if it's safe or not to disable.

For autorun processes that start on bootup ... A lot of them seem to start *after* you login, and after it's gone from login screen to the background screen. If that is the problem, I use a program called autorunman. I think I paid $5 for it. It finds all your autorun programs, whether they've buried themselves in the registry, or in your startup folder, or whatever. On a program by program basis it can display info about what that program is, to help you decide whether or not to keep keep it as an autorun. Might be a bit more thorough and less dangerous than using msconfig directly.

Pretty much every software package you install tries to autorun itself or a daemon. I uncheck all of that except the things I know I always want -- the system daemons (the Windows daemons that start up automatically and that I don't understand), the firewall, the virus checker, the printer daemon. I uncheck the start daemons from Real Player, Quicktime, etc., and just let those start up the first time the program executes.

Joe

I just use hibernate. Never had a problem and boots up in a matter of seconds. I might restart once a month.

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KevinL said:
That is strange indeed, normally if my computer is running at full power with the screensaver on, just the slightest mouse movement will immediately throw me back to the password prompt.

You'll know if your computer is coming out of hibernation because you will see the words "RESUMING WINDOWS" at the bottom of your screen followed by a scrolling progress bar.

As for standby, when I attempt to shut down the computer, the dialog box presents me with a number of choices including a "Standby" option. Select that to stand by.

To bring the computer out of that mode, I hit any key on my keyboard or press any mouse button and the monitor starts warming up again.

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i have win xp.

the screensaver is on...i move the mouse, and it returns to the screen that allows you to click on your account (my wife's, or mine). i think this is the logon screen?
i click on my icon, and it will slowly get back to my business.

i also notice it is EXTREMELY slow when going from "my side" to my "wife's side" (or the other way around).

AND (as if you are really interested in annoying windows problems), sometimes when i "wake" the computer back up by moving the mouse (or hitting a key, etc), the computer starts to go back to the logon screen (after about 15 seconds), then reverts BACK to screensaver!

move the mouse AGAIN, and it will go right back to the logon (more quickly this time).

is there ANY any way to keep the computer from reverting back to the logon when it has been idle for a while?

if we want to "change sides" (go to my wife's side of the computer) we can go to the start menu.

Bob /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif

i thought my pc was fast but it takes my darn pc almost 1 minute to fully boot. thats just slowwwwwwwwwwwwww. it hangs up at preapreing network conections i wonder if i change my seting for conecting if it will hellp

The network connections thing takes longer if you have mapped network drives. A lot longer if the network drive is off-line.

Go here for several tweaking guides:

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles.php?dCategory=guides&sortMeth=&sortYear=all

Look at the last two on the page as a start.

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pedalinbob said:
is there ANY any way to keep the computer from reverting back to the logon when it has been idle for a while?

Bob /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif

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Right click on desktop. Click Properties > Screen Saver. Uncheck box for "On resome, display Welcome screen" on XP or "Password protected" on Win2k.

Then click Power > Advanced. Uncheck "Prompt for password when computer resumes from standby". I guess if you don't use a password, this doesn't make any difference.

Actually I don't use a screensaver, I let my monitor go on standby after 20 minutes of inactivity, but I think one of those settings will do what you want.

Since the invention of monitors that go on standby, screensavers are worse than useless.