I'm a Windows computer and I boot up slowly

[Odeon]

I'd forgotten all about Autoruns and I'm happy to see that it's still being updated! Thanks for the link sirgoit. 8-)

That really is quite a lot of time between the Windows loading animation and login prompt and the time between the desktop showing and being able to load Firefox and get to RPS is ridiculous. Try booting into Safe Mode by repeatedly pressing F8 right after the Acer logo goes away (after POST) and time the complete startup process again two more times to make sure there isn't some one-time difference. If your times are still very long, your hard drive is either too full and/or dying on you. If you get into Safe Mode pretty quickly, it means that the problem is Windows and/or startup programs.

Either way go to http://support.acer.com/product/defa...px?modelId=570 and download your User Manual (last green Download button), unzip the PDF and jump to page 21 (page 1 of the manual) to see how to open the Acer Empowering Technology program. Then jump to page 82 (page 62 of the manual) to see how to burn a restore DVD (in case your HDD is dying or dies at any time in the future) and how to restore your laptop to "factory default" (if your HDD is fine). A factory default restore typically formats your HDD and re-installs Windows to the exact state it was at when you first bought it, including any pre-installed bloatware apps. Because of the format process, you'll want to get all of your docs, videos, pics, etc. onto your external HDD before doing a factory default restore or before your drive dies on you.

[Danny252]

I gave safemode a run (I was a bit naughty and didn't do multiple tries, oh the joys of not having a huge amount of time to spend restarting) - Windows loady bar was 1:02, login screen to desktop was 0:19 and to get FF up and running was 0:31 - a fair improvement. Meanwhile, the Windows load screen/time to login hasn't changed a huge amount on normal mode (1:55ish still) but the responsiveness for logging in and doing stuff is up (0:20 to login vs 0:35ish, and 1:34 to get to RPS compared to the old 2:40)

I'm starting to think that a Windows reinstall is probably the only way to go now - there isn't really a huge amount more optimising I can do (removing anything I've not yet disabled with Autoruns tends to have the undesired effect of disabling my keyboard, drive is pretty much as non-fraggy as possible, I've turned off unnecessary bits in the AV...); and it's the Windows loading time which hasn't changed at all during this.

[Odeon]

Yep, I think it's best to get your system ready for a factory restore. Even if there are some things that can be adjusted, the time investment needed to figure out which things will make slight improvements isn't worth it.

I hope you've got a big external drive. ;-)

[Danny252]

Yep, I think it's best to get your system ready for a factory restore. Even if there are some things that can be adjusted, the time investment needed to figure out which things will make slight improvements isn't worth it.

I hope you've got a big external drive. ;-)

200GB internal vs 1TB+250GB+75GB externals (The latter two having been "salvaged" from long-dead computers back home) - I should manage! At least with all this cleaning out of the HD/programs I have a whole lot less to move over. Thanks for the advice chaps :)

[somini]

For the love of god, don't do a factory restore. Just reinstall Windows with the key that is in the bottom of the laptop and then you can go to your PC manufacturer's site and download all the missing drivers.
If you do a factory restore all those bloatware programs that come pre-installed will be forever ingrained. You can borrow a DVD from a friend and install it with your key, or even *ahem*acquire the DVD in a less legal way.
As long as the key you use is the one that came with the computer you are clear. I made it myself, you just need to activate Windows online or by phone after the installation.

[Odeon]

Actually, that's a good point. All computers are much better off with clean installs of empty (non-OEM) Windows. If you use any of the stuff that was pre-installed, chances are pretty good that you can download those programs from Acer's site at the same time that you're downloading your drivers.

You might try the restore DVD procedure in the Acer manual instead of looking for/borrowing someone else's disc. Sometimes the disc that's created is a blank OEM-licensed copy of Windows like the versions that come with Dells. The only way to know for sure, unfortunately, is to go ahead and burn the DVD, but even if it turns out to be the same as the factory restore at least you'll have that backup in case of drive failure on your laptop. Plus the OEM keys that are on the cases of towers and laptops by Acer, Dell, Asus, Gateway, etc. don't always work with retail Windows DVDs, especially in the case of Win7. You may need to find the specific OEM copy of Vista to use your key, which is what I'd hope the restore DVD would be.

[somini]

I thought that if you have a retail DVD you can install with the OEM key, just the opposite is not possible. I might be wrong, though.

[Odeon]

Unfortunately that's not the case. At my last job we bought OEM licenses for Win7 Pro 64 and tried two or three different installers downloaded through MSDN (I think) before we finally found the exact right one. XP was very lenient with keys but 7 is just about the polar opposite.

[skitfarlig]

In Windows 7 there is a feature called ReadyBoost. I haven't used it myself so I'm not sure how it works.

All I know is that you need a USB stick. I think ReadyBoost then puts some critical or heavy Windows files on the stick and boots from it, which is much faster then booting from a mechanical HDD.

Check if Windows Vista has this feature! :)

[Althea]

In Windows 7 there is a feature called ReadyBoost. I haven't used it myself so I'm not sure how it works.

All I know is that you need a USB stick. I think ReadyBoost then puts some critical or heavy Windows files on the stick and boots from it, which is much faster then booting from a mechanical HDD.

Check if Windows Vista has this feature! :)

It does, but it's largely pointless unless you have low RAM, I believe.

[LTK]

If you start up msconfig.exe, go to the Boot tab, then to Advanced Options, there is a Number of Processors checkbox, which is usually unchecked and set to one, so the computer only uses a single core to start up. I think you have a dual-core processor, so you can set it to two, which might make a difference. The checkbox might be in a slightly different place in Vista, but it's somewhere in msconfig.exe at least.

[roryok]

Vista is slower than XP or Windows 7. I'd recommend you upgrade or downgrade. Definitely a fresh install either way. Windows 7 home Premium is about €110 new, but someone you know is bound to have an XP key lying around.

I'm on a 2006 macbook which has a CoreDuo (not core2duo, just a crappy coreduo), & 2GB of RAM which I can't upgrade. Your machine should trounce this. Windows boot takes very little time. Actually, I'm going to go time it and come back with an answer after I post this.

EDIT: Boot Times:
0:42 > password prompt
1:01 > usable desktop
1:16 > Chrome open on RPS forums

Take away 5 seconds for the macbook EFI menu letting me choose partitions, and about another 5 to type my password and hit enter.

Check in your BIOS that you have SATA native mode enabled, otherwise HD access will be slower (only marginally but it all helps)

If you have a genuine copy of windows (or even if you don't ¬.¬) you can use Microsoft Essentials, which is the lowest profile Antivirus I've ever used. But honestly, I don't think AV is that important either way. I've never gotten a virus. Most viruses come from people installing dodgy things, clicking on email attachements etc. Common sense and computer experience beats antivirus every time, and you seem to have plenty of both.

If you find an XP disc, that €110 could go toward an SSD. I've tried the Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid drive, and I didn't notice a huge difference over a standard HDD. It also caused me some GPU glitch problems due to power usage when on battery. Ended up going back to a standard HDD.

Get an app called Startup Delayer. It's free and it lets you delay your startup apps as long as you like. Chances are you won't use skype in the first minute of computer use, but it could save you time getting to the desktop.

Turn off system restore and indexing services. I've heard they help a lot. If you use chrome, theres a flashblocker and a social widgets blocker that speed up my webbrowsing an enormous amount. You'd be AMAZED.

If you only do one thing on this list, reformat and install from scratch. I do it every few months just to keep things fresh. It also helps me organise myself by keeping all my essential files in one place so I can move them to an external drive (or dropbox) and back again

EDIT 2:

If you don't already use it I highly recommend Hibernate mode. Boot time is faster and it keeps apps open (including tray apps, saving mucho load time). Some people will say hibernate is unstable, and you might encounter an occasional crash when resuming. This will mean you'll lose your session. However, not using hibernate means you lose your session every time you turn off your machine

[Kamikaze-X]

EDIT: Boot Times:
0:42 > password prompt
1:01 > usable desktop
1:16 > Chrome open on RPS forums

[/I]

That long eh? I think you need to look at your own boot and see what is slowing it down.

[FriendlyFire]

There's a last thing you can do which I haven't seen listed, and that's to run a full diagnostic using xbootmgr and xperf. There's a tutorial for this here:
http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/1402...resume-issues/

xbootmgr will do a full timing run of the ENTIRE boot process, from the moment the loading icon appears up to a usable and loaded desktop. It then spits out an XML report that tells you what's happening during boot. It's how I sadly figured out that the only things taking long during my boot sequence were my 2 HDDs and my sound card getting loaded.

Note however that some things may not apply to Vista. I've no idea whether xbootmgr/xperf is even available for it, but considering how similar the codebases are I'd assume so.

[slick_101]

Software Get soluto, this has speed up my computer a great deal. though my computer does take 2 minutes-ish to have everything all booted properly I can use it from about 1:30 in

[roryok]

That long eh? I think you need to look at your own boot and see what is slowing it down.

It's actually a completely fresh install because OSX ate my partitions last week. It's 2GB and a CoreDuo, and its 6 years old. That's why I'm upgrading!

Granted it was a bit faster when not set up for dual boot.