What are the "sure" methods of reducing windows startup time?

[sandia911]

What are the "sure" methods of reducing windows startup time?

My bootup speed is annoyingly slow. I know there are a few tips n tricks for reducing the time it takes to reach the desktop from the initial power on.

But what are the most effective of these tricks or hacks?

My details:
Windows XP Home running on a 256RAM, 2.5Ghz P4 laptop (with wireless internet). The computer is used mostly for surfing and P2P.

[100%]

http://filesharingtalk.com/vb3/t83795-%28Guide%29+Speed+UP+Boot+and+Start+Up+Time+of+XP.html

[clocker]

Adding more RAM would certainly help.

[limesqueezer]

Adding more RAM would certainly help.

How much more RAM ?
Cause i have now 2 gb of RAM and din't see any difference, i can compare to my computer at weekend house which has around 500 gb, no difference with same XP.

[100%]

Basically avoid too many things or unecessary things in your startup.
I use ccleaner (http://www.ccleaner.com/) to check them occasionally (tools button), and remove unecessary services http://www.overclockersclub.com/guides/windows_xp_services_2.php

[limesqueezer]

All u need to do is select adjust for best performance in xp, i do that in every windows xp cause i don't like those effects anyway.

[suprafreak6]

ahhah that has nothing to do with boot times limesqueezer

[chinook_apache]

What are the "sure" methods of reducing windows startup time?

My bootup speed is annoyingly slow. I know there are a few tips n tricks for reducing the time it takes to reach the desktop from the initial power on.

But what are the most effective of these tricks or hacks?

My details:
Windows XP Home running on a 256RAM, 2.5Ghz P4 laptop (with wireless internet). The computer is used mostly for surfing and P2P.


get hold of a piece of software called startup monitor...when activated this will prompt you that a certain program wants to run on startup and you have the option of accepting or declining this.

also if you have a large hdd partition the drive so windows partition is about 12gb.

i run windows on 10gb partition and all software etc is installed on the other partitions. just a thought tho but definitly get startup monitor.

you can also go start>run>msconfig and untick any programs which you dont want at start up.

hope it helps.

[Virtualbody1234]

Adding more RAM would certainly help.

How much more RAM ?
Cause i have now 2 gb of RAM and din't see any difference, i can compare to my computer at weekend house which has around 500 gb, no difference with same XP.

I don't think that clocker was talking about your system. He was answering the thread starter.

I agree that a system with 256MB of RAM would benefit with at least another 256MB.

[tesco]

Adding more RAM would certainly help.

How much more RAM ?
Cause i have now 2 gb of RAM and din't see any difference, i can compare to my computer at weekend house which has around 500 gb, no difference with same XP.500gb of ram?

[Virtualbody1234]

How much more RAM ?
Cause i have now 2 gb of RAM and din't see any difference, i can compare to my computer at weekend house which has around 500 gb, no difference with same XP.500gb of ram?
He doesn't seem to know what he's talking about. :noes:

[limesqueezer]

500gb of ram?
He doesn't seem to know what he's talking about. :noes:

What now, is 500 gb not enough for XP ?

[Virtualbody1234]

He doesn't seem to know what he's talking about. :noes:

What now, is 500 gb not enough for XP ?

See? :lol:


http://www.mcbrien.plus.com/liam/img/smilies/roflmao.gifhttp://www.mcbrien.plus.com/liam/img/smilies/roflmao.gifhttp://www.mcbrien.plus.com/liam/img/smilies/roflmao.gif

[limesqueezer]

OK, damn you got me, i said gb instead of mb hahaha
Have fun as long as it lasts. :D

[Smith]

Start>Run>msconfig

Go to the startup tab and see how many things are checked. Report back.

[Virtualbody1234]

OK, damn you got me, i said gb instead of mb hahaha
Have fun as long as it lasts. :D

No that's not even it.

[CrumbCat]

Toooooo funny!

[clocker]

What are the "sure" methods of reducing windows startup time?...But what are the most effective of these tricks or hacks?

In my experience, the biggest single improvement in speeding up boot times (and, not coincidentally, XP in general) is to create a custom nLite install disk.
Not only can you strip out huge chunks of useless crap (do you really need keyboard support for Urdu?) but most importantly, you can slipstream drivers into the install.
I have actually created test nLite disks (identical setups, one with and one without drivers) to check this theory and it does make a significant difference.

All the other recommendations will help but creating the custom install disk will make the biggest improvement.

Besides that, it's fun in a geeky kind of way.