Zazula

1. Press Windows Key + R, type eventvwr.msc, press OK. Look for Error Events (esp. if they can be linked to your startup) and report what you found. Close the Event Viewer.

2. Press Windows Key + R, type devmgmt.msc, press OK. Select View menu > Show hidden devices. Look for anything that has a yellow question or exclamation mark and report what you found. Close the Device Manager.

3. Remove any USB devices that are connected during the startup (flash drives, external drives, keyboard, mouse, cameras, printers, scanners, etc), also remove any discs that might be inside your optical drives, and record your boot time to see if it is any faster than previously.

4. Is this computer connected to a local area network? If yes, please give me all the details. Press Windows key + R, type ipconfig /all, press OK and copy the resulting message in your reply.

5. Perform a clean start (see how to do this here) and record again your boot time. After that, return your computer to its previous state in order to move on with the ensuing steps and reboot.

6. This time you'll have booted normally. As soon as you get in Windows, press ALT+CTRL+DEL to launch the Windows Task Manager. On the bottom left corner, see and record the number of Processes running.

7. Force a verbose startup. To do so, press Windows key + R, type gpedit.msc, and then click OK. Expand Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, and then click System. In the right pane, double-click Verbose vs normal status messages. Click Enabled, and then click OK. Close the Group Policy Object Editor and reboot. Now monitor carefully the messages posted on the screen and find any steps of the booting procedure that make you think they take unreasonably long. Be vigilant particularly to messages starting with "Waiting for...".

8. (Applicable if the computer is part of a local network) Press Windows Key + R, type gpedit.msc, press OK. Go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Logon. Check out the value of "Always wait for the network at computer startup and logon". If it is not configured, it's the same as being disabled (unless the computer is a server - which is not). If it is enabled, your computer will be waiting for the network to be fully initialized before continuing with the logon.

9. Press Windows Key + R, type explorer, press OK. Go to Tools menu > Folder Options > View tab > Advanced Settings, and uncheck the box "Automatically search for network folders and printers".

10. There is always a small possibility that there is a corrupted file in the C:\Windows\Prefetch folder that causes this issue (this has reportedly caused startup times of 10 minutes or more). To eliminate this, delete the contents of the C:\Windows\Prefetch folder and restart the computer. Beware, though: you'll have to be patient until the Prefetch folder and the layout.ini file get populated again, until you re-gain in full the optimization provided by the prefetch function.

11. If you are familiar with backing up, editing and restoring the Registry (if you're not, then post back for further instructions), then press Windows Key + R, type regedit, press OK. Find the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\MemoryManagement\PrefetchParameters, locate the EnablePrefetcher value, and modify its setting from 3 to 5 (decimal). Close the Registry Editor and reboot. (Don't expect miracles, but 10-15 seconds are a typical result of this tweak.)

12. Again in the Registry Editor, find the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction and verify that the Enable value has a setting of Y. If not, modify it, exit the editor and reboot.

13. (Applicable if the computer is part of a local network) You can save some startup time by setting the IP address manually. (If you share an Internet Connection, do not follow this step as is, and post back for further instructions.) From the Properties of your NIC, on the General tab, double-click TCP/IP and set the IP address manually. You have to be careful not to use an IP address already existing in your LAN. If you bump into any negative implications from this step, post back.

14. In case you do not need/use the Remote Assistance and the Remote Desktop Sharing in your computer, right-click My Computer, choose Properties, click the Remote Tab, and clear both check boxes to disable Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop.

15. If you are using Outlook Express 6, you might opt not to launch the Messenger at boot time. Open OE6, select Tools > Windows Messenger > Options, click the Preferences tab, clear the "Allow this program to run in the background" check box and click OK.

16. Press Windows Key + R, type devmgmt.msc, press OK. Go to the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers and double-click on all IDE Channels (Primary/Secondary) - one at a time, of course. Go to the Advanced Settings tab, select the devices that are not grayed-out, and change their type from Auto Detection to None. You'll only need to revisit this setting and change it back to Auto Detection if you intend to add a device on the IDE bus.


17. I assume that you have optimized (that is, you've eliminated anything not necessary) in the Startup Programs (via msconfig) and Services area (via services.msc). However, if you have any questions there for some further optimization, do not hesitate to ask. I also assume that the amount of loaded fonts in your computer is not anything beyond normal, and that you do not have any active devices that are not actually needed/used. Finally, I assume that you have defragmented your system hard disc and you normally keep doing this every 10-15 days. If any of these assumptions are not true, please rectify accordingly or ask for assistance.

18. A trivial optimization (2-4 seconds) in the startup time is achieved by selecting the /NOGUIBOOT switch for the boot.ini in the msconfig; but you won't been seeing any messages in case something goes wrong during the startup, so I doubt it's worth it.

19. Significant time optimizations are achieved through the BIOS settings, namely: Floppy seek (->No), Quick POST (->Yes), Boot sequence (->C or HardDisc0), IDE peripherals auto-detection (->No), Boot virus detection (->No), AGP/PCI video card (->as applicable). If any of the above do not make sense to you, please post back for further instructions.

20. A cluttered Registry will always lead to unacceptably long boot times (among other things), but I generally do not endorse Registry Cleaners, and I leave this step here as part of this mini-guide, only for reference and advanced users.

21. The last resort (apart from a repair/clean installation, of course) is described in Microsoft's white paper Fast System Startup for PCs Running Windows XP, which again I cite here as an additional resource only - and I surely hope we'll straighten your issue out before we arrive at this step...