Speed up XP’s Boot Time
On a freshly installed machine, boot time may vary from 20 seconds to 30 seconds flat. If you’ve had your PC for quite a long time without reformatting (like me it goes 24/7) that speed may extend to 50 or even 90 seconds. To most people that’s bearable but to impatient geeks like me (and most of the netizens) it’s simply not acceptable. Here’s some tips to shave a few precious seconds off XP’s boot time.
Before you begin, make sure that your Operating System (in this case XP) is installed on your fastest Hard Drive. If it’s still on an old 5200rpm drive, then re-installing on a faster, better drive will have better results than all the followiing tips combined.
The BIOS
All PCs have a system basic input/output system, or BIOS, which is what takes control of your computer the moment that you turn it on. The screen that you first see when you turn on your computer is called the power on self test screen, better known as the POST screen which checks whether your PC is able to boot or not by doing some probing on what hardware is installed. Once POST finishes, you can either enter the BIOS settings or let it boot into the Operating System installed.
To Enter the BIOS screen, it’s either F2 or Del (varies according to manufacturer)
WARNING: While you are making changes in the system BIOS, make sure you do not accidentally change settings other than what I specify. Doing so may cause permanent damage to your CPU or cause your PC to not boot at all. If you accidentally change something and don’t know what to change it back to, just exit the BIOS setup screen and choose to NOT Save Changes. Afterwards you’re free to reboot and re-enter the setup screen again.
On the BIOS set up here’s what you can do:
- Change the Boot Order to set your Primary Hard Drive (where you installed your OS) as the first device.
- Enable the Quick Boot on Advanced Chipset Options (name of the category may vary)
- Disable unused Slots and Ports like extra PCI and/or legacy ports
On Windows
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Disabling Unneeded Hardware Devices
To do this, Right Click My Computer on your Desktop, select properties > Hardware > Device Manager.
Some things you can disable:- Modems: This is especially important for notebook users. Who needs the dial-up modem nowadays?
- FireWire: Unless you have device that uses this specialized port, disable it.
- Multimedia devices: The entry for multimedia devices is a long one and usage depends on the user. If you find yourself not using the game port or MIDI device, disable it.
- PCMCIA: Again for laptop users, if your notebook has all the peripherals you need, consider disabling your PCMCIA card. The PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) slot is special expansion slot that is rarely used today on laptops except for wireless and wired network cards (which I’m sure you’ve already got built-in) and sometimes card reader attachments.
WARNING: Don’t disable any device located under the Disk Drives, Computer, Display Adapters, IDE Disk Controllers, and the System sections (except for the system speaker). These are critical to the operation of your computer so don’t even think about it.
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Disable Unneeded Services
- Go to Start and Click Run. Alternatively you can just use Win Key + R
- Type “msconfig”, without quotations and hit enter or click the OK button
- Alerter
- Clipbook
- Computer Browser (do not disable if you’re on a LAN because you’re PC won’t be able to “see” any computer in the network)
- Distributed Link Tracking Client
- Fast User Switching
- Help and Support - (If you use Windows Help and Support leave this enabled)
- Human Interface Access Devices
- Indexing Service
- IPSEC Services
- Messenger
- Netmeeting Remote Desktop Sharing (disabled for extra security)
- Portable Media Serial Number
- Remote Desktop Help Session Manager (disabled for extra security)
- Remote Procedure Call Locator
- Remote Registry (disabled for extra security)
- Remote Registry Service
- Secondary Logon
- Routing & Remote Access (disabled for extra security)
- Server
- SSDP Discovery Service - (Universal Plug and Play will disable this)
- Task Scheduler
- Telnet
- Terminal Services (unless you use it)
- Windows Image Acquisition (WIA)
- TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
- Upload Manager
- Universal Plug and Play Device Host
- Windows Time
- Wireless Zero Configuration (Do not disable if you use a wireless network)
- Workstation (is required by some programs. You’ll rarely need it unless you’re a poweruser)
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Remove Unnecessary Files and Malware
To safely remove files, use CCleaner (AKA Crap Cleaner)
For a list of recommended Anti-Malware systems check out this great post by Leo. -
Defrag and Prefetch
While many people say that defragmenting your drive doesn’t help overall performance, it’s an absolute must to speed up boot times. Why? Because the speed that files are read is dependent on where they are located on your hard which is why if it’s pieces are scattered all over the disk, it takes quite awhile to access it. If you want to decrease xp’s boot time then defragmenting is a must.
Using Disk Defragmenter
Go to Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools and Click Disk Defragmenter.
Note that you cannot use your computer while the process is on going. Although the defragmenter works for windows files even if you disturb the process, it can’t access the boot files (which you need) so just leave it be. Also, disable the Power Saving option for turning the hard drive off and disable the screen saver.The Prefetcher
The prefetch folder is used to help speed things up by loading programs it thinks you need before you ask for them yourself. Neat huh?To enable the prefetcher:
- Go to Start and Click Run. Alternatively you can just use Win Key + R
- Type “regedit”, without quotations and hit enter or click the OK button
- When the Registry Editor Dialog box opens, navigate to this value: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters
- look for the key named EnablePrefetcher and choose from:
Values you can choose from include:
0: Disable
1: Application Launch Prefetch
2: Boot Prefetch
For obvious reasons, you want to set it to ‘2′.
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Disable Start-Up Items
The start-up folder gets cluttered over time by programs that want to start the moment windows load. Clean it up and save a few more seconds.
- Go to Start and Click Run. Alternatively you can just use Win Key + R
- Type “msconfig”, without quotations and hit enter or click the OK button
- Click the Startup Tab
- Uncheck all services you deem unnecessary the Microsoft Office Engine, Yahoo! Messenger, etc
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