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General discussion

3/8/04 Boot your PC faster

Mar 4, 2004 1:32AM PST
Question:
Lately my PC seems to take forever to boot up. I?m running Windows XP with plenty of RAM. Any ideas? --Submitted by Wendy T., from Randolph, NJ

Answer:
1. Do a disk cleanup. This will remove some of the junk that is cluttering
up the temporary file folder. Right-click on the C: drive icon, click
Properties > Disk Cleanup. Microsoft's built-in disk
cleanup is conservative to the point of being half-baked and useless. It
does not do a thorough job of cleaning out the files left behind by other
Microsoft application software, most notably Internet Explorer and its
software installations and other poorly written software used regularly.

2. If the disk cleanup does not improve matters much, open up the temporary
file folder itself. Click Run and enter %temp% in the dialog box. Remove any
file or folder you do not recognize as being useful to you. This may mean
deleting everything. No software application has any business leaving
important or permanent files in the temporary file folder.

3. Uninstall any software you will never use. Examples are the AOL and
other ISP installations preloaded at the factory and other preinstalled software.

4. Clean up the Windows Registry with a commercial-grade software package
such as Norton SystemWorks. The Registry grows and grows and grows. Windows
has no built-in tools to prune out obsolete or invalid entries.

5. Remove any unneeded icons from the Windows desktop and Start menu
tree. Each one requires a little time to process when the system is
booting up, and each one eats a little bit of system memory. It seems like
every bit of software you install these days wants to claim its space on
your desktop, whether you need the program or not.

6. Run MSCONFIG and remove any rarely used programs from the Windows task
bar. As with icons, but even more so, these programs take time to run when
the system starts up, and they take up precious system memory. First, make
sure you can find and run any of these programs should you need to use them.

7. Defragment the hard drive. Because Microsoft and Executive Software
colluded to deliver a slightly crippled defrag in Windows XP Home, you may
have to reboot and defrag several times to get the hard drive defragmented
and the files compacted completely.

That's the quick synopsis of the tasks I perform for clients whose systems
become lethargic. I haven't figured out yet what to do about lethargic
clients, though...


submitted by Ben M of Harvard, MA

Thank you for the great submission, Ben!

While there could be many other possible factors for slow OS boot ups besides what Ben has suggested, I thought I would list a few honorable mentions that could help out others who are encountering this particular issue. Thank you everyone for all the great submissions .

Here you go:


Answer:
This can be caused by several different and or combinations of problems.

First and foremost, check your system for virii and Trojans, make sure that your antivirus definitions are up to date. One of the latest are Trojans that hijack Notepad.exe.

Second, check your system for spyware and or browser hijacking. This can be done by using a spyware detector like PestPatrol, for hijacking; HijackThis will show anything that shouldn't be on your system, to help prevent spyware and or hijacking; SpywareGuard will alert you if settings are being changed.

Third, do you have any running processes that don't need to be running? Check this by doing Ctrl, Alt, Delete, choose Process tab, make sure that everything that is running is necessary.
You can also try this to see what is preloading:
Start > Run, type in "msconfig" (without the quotes)
Click the Boot.ini tab and then select the /SOS switch.
Now instead of seeing that black and white progress bar you will now see in real time what files are being loaded. This can give you a clue where it is hanging up.

Fourth, when was the last time you Defragged, cleaned out Temporary Internet Folder, Temp folder, Prefetch folder, History folder, Recent folder and Cookie folder?

Fifth, is your registry clean? Have you been uninstalling? If so, many uninstallers do not remove all traces from the registry, also moving items from place to place can cause many invalid registry entries which can cause after time, slow booting. Try Norton Utilities WinDoctor for this purpose.

Sixth, is all the memory installed showing? Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Information, to view total system memory. If the memory is showing less than 95% of what is actually installed, you could have a bad or incompatible chip, if your system is older, and you're getting 50% of the actual amount installed, you're running a high density (CAS Latency 2) chip, for older systems, you need low density (CAS Latency3) chip.

submitted by C C of Richboro, PA

**************************

Answer:

Hello,

Without knowing more information ( For example how does the computer perform
once it is booted up ?)

I would update my virus definitions, run a full system scan being careful to
turn off system restore which if left on would keep copies of the virus. To
do this go to start>settings>control panel>system>click on system restore
and select Turn off System Restore this will result in a warning but for
these purposes ignore it.

Run your antivirus scan and note if any viruses are detected, and clean
following procedures as outlined for removals as needed.

Once this is complete I would check for spyware that may be in the system
since most anti-virus programs won't detect spyware. ( Consult the message
boards for which spyware detection programs to use and follow links to each
respectively ).

Once these scans are complete turn system restore back on and observe how
the computer performs..if problems still persist consult a technician to
check for hardware related problems.

Hope this helps!

submitted by Mike W.

**************************

Answer:

1. Run a good spy program, i.e. AdAware or my favorite SpyBot (it's free and works great!)
2. Then defrag (don't care what XP tells you when you start it, just run it,
3. Then set your cache limits to 2X's your actual memory, i.e if you have 512 megs of ram set cache to 1024 max.
4. Set up explorer to dump your temp files when you log off along with temp cookies ect.
5. Want speed hmm look down in your lower right corner of your screen, see all them icons, all of them are running to some degree, check each one make sure you really need all of them working, they (most of them) are memory hogs.
6. And another place to look is your desktop (active desktops use memory, lots of it,either go to a black background (or blue or red whatever) or use a simple background.
All these things when adjusted right will help speed it back up.


submitted by wawwiz

**************************

Answer:

I would trouble shoot that with the following all 3 of
these steps:

1. Trojans often run at start up. So I would first run
a virus scan with fully updated virus-definitions. Be
sure to turn on the option to scan the boot partition.

2. Scan for spy & ad-ware. Most of these applications
load at start up. Lavasoft's Adaware is great for all
users. Spybot Search & Destroy is good for advanced
users.

3. After running and cleaning trojans/spyware out of
the system, I would reboot the PC and check out the
remaining start-up programs in the msconfig program.
Click Start -> Run -> Type "msconfig" and hit Enter.
In the window that opens click the last tab "Startup".
Go through the list of all start up programs, and
uncheck the ones that you no longer want or need to
start up with the PC.

Of course, the big question for most users is "how do
I know what is okay to uncheck?". The answers are
found in the "Greatis Startup Application Database"
which is located at
http://greatis.com/regrun3appdatabase.htm. For free
you can consult their database of the most commonly
found Windows start-up programs, as well as reliable
advice on if you should or should not disable them.

After clearing the unwanted start-ups, reboot the PC.
XP will usually ask if you want to re-open the
msconfig dialog, you can just say no!.

submitted by David R. of Potomac Falls, VA

**************************

Answer:

Here are some possible causes for XP or any Windows OS for having a delayed
loading process:

1a. If you have network connections which must be reestablished for files,
databases, or mapped drives connecting to busy servers, it will take time to
verify permissions and establish sessions.
1b. Limit connections to network resources until needed if possible. For
earlier Windows systems, a quick logon without testing option is available.

2a. Removable drives such as zip drives or CD/DVD disks are slower by
nature. If disks are in the drives, they are scanned for volume information
and may hold up the process.
2b. If possible, keep disks out of slower removable media drives until you
need them.

3a. Newer antivirus programs with extensive startup scanning must perform
their tasks on files that are loading into memory.
3b. Processor speed will help far more than memory with loading programs
like antivirus software, assuming you have sufficient memory. I recommend
at least 256MB or more for XP.

submitted by Kim H

Discussion is locked

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Re:March 1, 2004 Membership Q&A Newsletter
Mar 7, 2004 2:08PM PST

Many ask questions (on my web site) on Windows 2000/XP about boosting performance, and many of these web sites are quacks buying meaning when Windows 2000/XP startup it go thought many diagnostic tests this is one of the reasons why the startup time is so show. For best performances do not install a lot of software you do not use, this will also slows down the operating system start up time. Many of these boosting software's will do more damage to the Windows operating system then good, for example you'll have much more error codes and well injure the diagnostic sequence of Windows in trying to boost up performance. The advice submitted by Ben M of Harvard, MA is also good. Since the beginning of Windows 95 now to Windows XP the bigger your registry grows the slower it will be, also if you have many programs in your Startup this will also injure your startup time. Inasmuch, programs like Yahoo, ICQ, MSN and diagnostic tools and scheduled to start with Windows boots up will also injure your startup time big-time and most likely the problem.

Solution: you do not need everything in your startup folder many programs will start without being in this folder. (The most common ones are registration form?s you lack in completing in the startup folder these can be removed and sometimes found on your desktop too.) This folder is located under programs the most important software you need on startup and especially is your fire wall and antivirus software. Disable Yahoo, ICQ, MSN and diagnostic tools on startup then when you see Windows is fully up then enable anything you want. Also keep Windows Registry clean and free of errors, Defragment the hard drive regular.

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Re:March 1, 2004 Membership Q&A Newsletter
Mar 7, 2004 2:45PM PST

Go to WINDOWS>Prefetch.
From the top toolbar select Edit>Select All.
Right click and delete the whe whole lot of them.
Nothing in there is important. Do it once a week.

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Re:March 1, 2004 Membership Q&A Newsletter
Mar 7, 2004 3:18PM PST

I have found that the biggest problem in slow boots is large amounts of data/files in the user profile. The user profile contains all user-specific application data, especially Outlook Express folders, and any files on your desktop, NOT just the icons.

For instance, if you store digital photos either directly on your desktop on in folders on your desktop, they are stored in your profile. Many people download programs, etc directly to their desktop. These are also part of the user profile. The 'My Documents' folder, 'My Music', 'My Pictures' folders are all part of the user profile.

When Windows XP starts up, it copies the entire user profile and 'All Users' profile and combines them into a working profile. If you have large amount of data in your profile, it will take a long time to copy. -- I know, I had 4 gigabytes of digital photos in a folder on my desktop.

To see if this is a problem, go to the 'Documents and Settings' Folder and right click on the profile folder with your user name, or 'User' if you did not personalize your system. The 'properties' command will show you the size of all files in your profile (including sub-folders).

To solve this problem, move desktop folders directly to the root drive ( C: ) and use a shortcut on the desktop instead. Also, delete as many old mail messages as you can. There are also many other applications that store-user-specific info in the user profiles.

I have tried all the other suggestions listed in the past, and while they can help to some extent, I found that user profile copying was the biggest contributer. I do not know if profile copying occurs when you are the only user on the machine, but I know it happens on machines that have one or more users defined.

Lee Mulcahy