Four minute WinXP boot up

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ken Blake, MVP
  • Start date Start date
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Ken Blake, MVP

Guest
On Sat, 30 Jan 2010 10:55:01 -0800, PSRumbagh

wrote:



> It takes about 4 minutes for my Compaq V2000 laptop to boot-up using WinXP

> Home with SP3. NORMAL boot-up invokes 58 processes, 107 services, 489

> modules, 215 drivers , 25 startup and 29 IP connections. SAFE MODE boot-up

> invokes 12 processes, 107 services, 158 modules, 215 drivers, 25 startup and

> 0 IP connections. I am certain that many of the normal boot-up items are

> loaded for programs that I scarcely use. How do I figure out which of the

> normal boot up items is really needed and which are not needed? If I turn

> off a truely needed program in the Start Up folder can I do damage to my PC?








My personal view is that the attention many people pay to how long it

takes to boot is unwarranted. Assuming that the computer's speed is

otherwise satisfactory, it is not generally worth worrying about. Most

people start their computers once a day or even less frequently. In

the overall scheme of things, even a few minutes to start up isn't

very important. Personally I power on my computer when I get up in the

morning, then go get my coffee. When I come back, it's done booting. I

don't know how long it took to boot and I don't care.



However if you do want to address it, it may be because of what

programs start automatically, and you may want to stop some of them

from starting that way. On each program you don't want to start

automatically, check its Options to see if it has the choice not to

start (make sure you actually choose the option not to run it, not

just a "don't show icon" option). Many can easily and best be stopped

that way. If that doesn't work, run MSCONFIG from the Start | Run

line, and on the Startup tab, uncheck the programs you don't want to

start automatically.



However, if I were you, I wouldn't do this just for the purpose of

running the minimum number of programs. Despite what many people tell

you, you should be concerned, not with how *many* of these programs

you run, but *which*. Some of them can hurt performance severely, but

others have no effect on performance.



Don't just stop programs from running willy-nilly. What you should do

is determine what each program is, what its value is to you, and what

the cost in performance is of its running all the time. You can get

more information about these with google searches and asking about

specifics here.



Once you have that information, you can make an intelligent informed

decision about what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of.



--

Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003

Please Reply to the Newsgroup
 
On Jan 31, 2:34 pm, "Ken Blake, MVP"

wrote:

> On Sat, 30 Jan 2010 10:55:01 -0800, PSRumbagh

>

> wrote:

> > It takes about 4 minutes for my Compaq V2000 laptop to boot-up using WinXP

> > Home with SP3.  NORMAL boot-up invokes 58 processes, 107 services, 489

> > modules, 215 drivers , 25 startup and 29 IP connections. SAFE MODE boot-up

> > invokes 12 processes, 107 services, 158 modules, 215 drivers, 25 startup and

> > 0 IP connections.  I am certain that many of the normal boot-up itemsare

> > loaded for programs that I scarcely use.  How do I figure out which of the

> > normal boot up items is really needed and which are not needed?  If Iturn

> > off a truely needed program in the Start Up folder can I do damage to my PC?


>

> My personal view is that the attention many people pay to how long it

> takes to boot is unwarranted. Assuming that the computer's speed is

> otherwise satisfactory, it is not generally worth worrying about. Most

> people start their computers once a day or even less frequently. In

> the overall scheme of things, even a few minutes to start up isn't

> very important. Personally I power on my computer when I get up in the

> morning, then go get my coffee. When I come back, it's done booting. I

> don't know how long it took to boot and I don't care.

>

> However if you do want to address it, it may be because of what

> programs start automatically, and you may want to stop some of them

> from starting that way. On each program you don't want to start

> automatically, check its Options to see if it has the choice not to

> start (make sure you actually choose the option not to run it, not

> just a "don't show icon" option). Many can easily and best be stopped

> that way. If that doesn't work, run MSCONFIG from the Start | Run

> line, and on the Startup tab, uncheck the programs you don't want to

> start automatically.

>

> However, if I were you, I wouldn't do this just for the purpose of

> running the minimum number of programs. Despite what many people tell

> you, you should be concerned, not with how *many* of these programs

> you run, but *which*. Some of them can hurt performance severely, but

> others have no effect on performance.

>

> Don't just stop programs from running willy-nilly. What you should do

> is determine what each program is, what its value is to you, and what

> the cost in performance is of its running all the time. You can get

> more information about these with google searches and asking about

> specifics here.

>

> Once you have that information, you can make an intelligent informed

> decision about what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of.

>

> --

> Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003

> Please Reply to the Newsgroup




If you can get paid for analyzing a boot time from ntkrnlpa.exe to an

agreed upon definition of finished (accompanied by a log file of

actual timings) and then charge a fixed amount - say $1 - for every

second you knock off the time, it quickly gets important!



If somebody says their system takes too long to boot, please fix it, I

will first determine with certainty exactly how long is "too long" and

make the adjustments that do not compromise their intended use of the

system or their security (etc.) and will never use a trial and error

method.



It usually only takes a scant few minutes to get at least a 50%

reduction on a lot of systems once you agree on what finished booting

means. The rest is gravy.



There is no trial and error, disabling of "some programs", suggested

things to disable with no method, etc. as we often see suggested.

Figure out where every second is going and reduce it if you can. No

guessing.



I too am a hibernator, but it sometimes only takes one bad experience

to put the fear in people.
 
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