Just wondering what's a normal boot time?

It's one of those Asus x200ca's with a 240GB SSD. under 10 seconds. A lot of boot time is the HDD seeking around. You can find this size SSD for about 99 bucks now.

per crucial.com, 4 gig's more is about $45. That may be about it. Computer seems pretty decent now. I only installed this computer about 3 weeks ago, so still learning and doing various stuff. After I'm basically content I will probably reformat. I have to assume that I have done stuff that I shouldn't have and doing a reformat and installing everything 'correctly' should give me a dependable system for some time to come. I bought my Dell windows XP Pro in January, 2003 and it worked great during all that time. So, hopefully this new computer will last, at least until Windows 8.1 goes obsolete. LOL. Maybe not so funny.

Thanks everyone,

Eddie

It may not help boot times all that much, but if you're prone to being a laggard when it comes to upgrading, it definitely will be a worthwhile investment over the long-term.

Just as an FYI, I used to reformat my windows xp pro on a regular basis using the nlite program. Never had any issues with virus and stuff like that, but I was always looking to keep computer fresh. As you know with the higher graphics and stuff, my old system really started to show its age, so buying a new computer became, almost, a necessity regardless of the fact that support was dropped for xp. This "new" computer is "flying" compared to my old system. So, I don't plan on doing the nlite thing anymore. I don't even know if their working on a windows 8 version. But now its just get it the best you can, and then sit back and enjoy it. That's why I'm spending some time now learning as much as I can to improve the system, then I'll save everything and use the reset recover option to clean the machine, reinstall my stuff the right way and then be done.

Thanks for replying

Haven't used it myself, but apparently Windows 8 has a "refresh" feature which is sort of like formatting, but it'll preserve your files and metro/modern apps. So, probably not as much need for third party tools to do essentially the same thing.

If you ask me, anyone who looks beneath the surface of Windows 8 and doesn't just immediately balk at the start screen will be rewarded by finding that Windows 8 is quite possibly the best version of Windows Microsoft has come up with yet, even for desktops. Start screen aside, which is more odd than bad, Windows 8 is just kind of oozing production value that you just didn't find in any version of Windows. Case in point is how I've repeatedly asked people to come up with a single technical reason why any previous version of Windows was better. Haven't gotten a single answer yet. Just a whole lot of people whining because they're too good to spend a couple minutes with Google to figure out how to do something.

So best of luck to ya, and don't be afraid to ask a question of you have one. Just ignore the chorus of narcissists who think that world+dog is absolutely enthralled by their tales of of woe about how the solution to their problem didn't magically pass through the membrane of another reality and enter their head via a kind of osmosis while they just sat there like a slackjawed idiot feeling sorry for themselves. Naturally it's Microsoft's fault, because otherwise it would be their fault! They might chip a nail typing in all those searches, and we all know how hard it is to get an appointment with a decent manicurist on short notice! Won't someone think of the children?!

And in case anyone was somehow left with any doubt: Yes, the above was sarcastic.