Speed Up Boot and Shutdown Times:-
Shorten the time it takes for your desktop to appear when you turn on your PC—and make Windows shut down faster.
No matter how fast your PC boots, it’s not fast enough. Here are several hacks to get you right to your desktop as quickly as possible after start-up, whether you use Windows XP or Windows Vista.
1. Confirm that boot defragmentation is enabled:-
There’s a simple way to speed up Windows startup: make your system do a boot defragment, which puts all the boot files next to one another on your hard disk. When boot files are in close proximity to one another, your system will start faster.
On most systems, boot defragments should be enabled by default, but it might not be on yours, or it might have been changed inadvertently. To make sure that boot defrayments is enabled on your system, launch the Registry Editor by typing regedit at the Start Search box or a command prompt
and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction
Edit the Enable string value to Y if it is not already set to Y. Exit the Registry and reboot. The next time you reboot, your computer will perform a boot defragment. I’ve found many web sites recommending a way of speeding up boot times for Windows XP that might in fact slow down the amount of time it takes to boot up and probably slow down launching applications as well.
The tip recommends going to your C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch directory and emptying it every week. Windows uses this directory to speed up launching applications. It analyzes the files you use during startup and the applications you launch, and it creates an index to where those files and applications are located on your hard disk. By using this index, Windows can launch files and applications faster. So, by emptying the directory, you are most likely slowing down launching applications. In my tests, I’ve also found that after emptying the directory, it takes my PC a few seconds longer to get to my desktop after bootup. You’ll also slow down launching files and opening applications, and interfere with Windows Vista ReadyBoost.
2. Hack Your BIOS for Faster Start ups:-
When you turn on your PC, it goes through a set of start up procedures in its BIOS before it gets to starting Windows. So, if you speed up those initial start up procedures, you’ll make your system start faster.
You can speed up your start up procedures by changing the BIOS with the built-in setup utility. How you run this utility varies from PC to PC, but you typically get to it by pressing either the Delete, F1, or F10 key during start up. You’ll come to a menu with a variety of choices. Here are the choices to
3. Make for faster system startups:
Quick Power On Self Test (POST)
When you choose this option, your system runs an abbreviated POST rather than the normal, lengthy one.
4. Change Your Boot Order
If you change the boot order so that your BIOS check the hard disk first for booting, it won’t check any other devices, and will speed up your startup time.
Boot up Floppy seek Disable this option. When it’s enabled, your system spends a few extra seconds looking for your
Floppy drive—a relatively pointless procedure, especially considering how infrequently you use your floppy drive.
5. Boot Delay:-
Some systems let you delay booting after you turn on your PC so that your hard drive gets a chance to start spinning before bootup. Most likely, you don’t need to have this boot delay, so turn it off. If you run into problems, however, you can turn it back on.
6. Fine-Tune Your Registry for Faster Startups
Over time, your Registry can become bloated with unused entries, slowing down your system startup because your system loads them every time you start up your PC. Get a Registry cleanup tool to delete unneeded Registry entries and speed up startup times.
Go to Download Category from there you can download Registry Repair Wizard 2009.
Speed Up Shutdown Times
It’s not only startup times that you’d like to speed up; you can also adjust things so that your system shuts down faster. If shutting down XP takes what seems to be an inordinate amount of time, here are a couple of steps you can take to speed up the shutdown process:-
Don’t have Windows clear your paging file at shutdown:-
For security reasons, you can have Windows clear your paging file (pagefile.sys) of its contents whenever you shut down. Your paging file is used to store temporary files and data, but when your system shuts down, information stays in the file. Some people prefer to have the paging file cleared at shutdown, because sensitive information (such as unencrypted passwords) sometimes ends
up in the file. However, clearing the paging file can slow shutdown times significantly, so if extreme security isn’t a high priority, you might not want to clear it.
To shut down Windows without clearing your paging file, run the Registry Editor and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
Change the value of ClearPageFileAtShutdown to 0. (It may already be set to this.) Close the Registry and restart your computer. Whenever you turn off Windows from now on, the paging file won’t be cleared, and you should be able to shut down more quickly.
One simple way to speed up shutdown (and startup) times is to not ever actually shut down your PC. Instead, use sleep or hibernate modes. They use very little power, and shut down and start up your PC far more quickly than when you shut off the power completely. Sometimes it takes Windows a long time to shut down because it’s waiting to see whether a service will stop on its own before prompting you to manually shut it down. Windows, by default, waits 20 seconds before prompting you, which can sometimes seem interminable. You can hack the Registry to have Windows ask you sooner than 20 seconds. Run the Registry Editor and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control
Look for the WaitToKillServiceTimeout value. By default, it’s set to 20000 (20,000 milliseconds).
Change it to another number, in milliseconds—such as 15000, which would have Windows wait 15 seconds instead of 20 before prompting you. It’s a good idea to start off lowering the number in increments of not more than fi ve seconds, to see how your computer responds. And don’t set it to lower than 5000, or you might lose data or your PC might not shut down properly.
Turn off unnecessary services
Services take time to shut down, so the fewer you run, the faster you can shut down.
Shorten the time it takes for your desktop to appear when you turn on your PC—and make Windows shut down faster.
No matter how fast your PC boots, it’s not fast enough. Here are several hacks to get you right to your desktop as quickly as possible after start-up, whether you use Windows XP or Windows Vista.
1. Confirm that boot defragmentation is enabled:-
There’s a simple way to speed up Windows startup: make your system do a boot defragment, which puts all the boot files next to one another on your hard disk. When boot files are in close proximity to one another, your system will start faster.
On most systems, boot defragments should be enabled by default, but it might not be on yours, or it might have been changed inadvertently. To make sure that boot defrayments is enabled on your system, launch the Registry Editor by typing regedit at the Start Search box or a command prompt
and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction
Edit the Enable string value to Y if it is not already set to Y. Exit the Registry and reboot. The next time you reboot, your computer will perform a boot defragment. I’ve found many web sites recommending a way of speeding up boot times for Windows XP that might in fact slow down the amount of time it takes to boot up and probably slow down launching applications as well.
The tip recommends going to your C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch directory and emptying it every week. Windows uses this directory to speed up launching applications. It analyzes the files you use during startup and the applications you launch, and it creates an index to where those files and applications are located on your hard disk. By using this index, Windows can launch files and applications faster. So, by emptying the directory, you are most likely slowing down launching applications. In my tests, I’ve also found that after emptying the directory, it takes my PC a few seconds longer to get to my desktop after bootup. You’ll also slow down launching files and opening applications, and interfere with Windows Vista ReadyBoost.
2. Hack Your BIOS for Faster Start ups:-
When you turn on your PC, it goes through a set of start up procedures in its BIOS before it gets to starting Windows. So, if you speed up those initial start up procedures, you’ll make your system start faster.
You can speed up your start up procedures by changing the BIOS with the built-in setup utility. How you run this utility varies from PC to PC, but you typically get to it by pressing either the Delete, F1, or F10 key during start up. You’ll come to a menu with a variety of choices. Here are the choices to
3. Make for faster system startups:
Quick Power On Self Test (POST)
When you choose this option, your system runs an abbreviated POST rather than the normal, lengthy one.
4. Change Your Boot Order
If you change the boot order so that your BIOS check the hard disk first for booting, it won’t check any other devices, and will speed up your startup time.
Boot up Floppy seek Disable this option. When it’s enabled, your system spends a few extra seconds looking for your
Floppy drive—a relatively pointless procedure, especially considering how infrequently you use your floppy drive.
5. Boot Delay:-
Some systems let you delay booting after you turn on your PC so that your hard drive gets a chance to start spinning before bootup. Most likely, you don’t need to have this boot delay, so turn it off. If you run into problems, however, you can turn it back on.
6. Fine-Tune Your Registry for Faster Startups
Over time, your Registry can become bloated with unused entries, slowing down your system startup because your system loads them every time you start up your PC. Get a Registry cleanup tool to delete unneeded Registry entries and speed up startup times.
Go to Download Category from there you can download Registry Repair Wizard 2009.
Speed Up Shutdown Times
It’s not only startup times that you’d like to speed up; you can also adjust things so that your system shuts down faster. If shutting down XP takes what seems to be an inordinate amount of time, here are a couple of steps you can take to speed up the shutdown process:-
Don’t have Windows clear your paging file at shutdown:-
For security reasons, you can have Windows clear your paging file (pagefile.sys) of its contents whenever you shut down. Your paging file is used to store temporary files and data, but when your system shuts down, information stays in the file. Some people prefer to have the paging file cleared at shutdown, because sensitive information (such as unencrypted passwords) sometimes ends
up in the file. However, clearing the paging file can slow shutdown times significantly, so if extreme security isn’t a high priority, you might not want to clear it.
To shut down Windows without clearing your paging file, run the Registry Editor and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
Change the value of ClearPageFileAtShutdown to 0. (It may already be set to this.) Close the Registry and restart your computer. Whenever you turn off Windows from now on, the paging file won’t be cleared, and you should be able to shut down more quickly.
One simple way to speed up shutdown (and startup) times is to not ever actually shut down your PC. Instead, use sleep or hibernate modes. They use very little power, and shut down and start up your PC far more quickly than when you shut off the power completely. Sometimes it takes Windows a long time to shut down because it’s waiting to see whether a service will stop on its own before prompting you to manually shut it down. Windows, by default, waits 20 seconds before prompting you, which can sometimes seem interminable. You can hack the Registry to have Windows ask you sooner than 20 seconds. Run the Registry Editor and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control
Look for the WaitToKillServiceTimeout value. By default, it’s set to 20000 (20,000 milliseconds).
Change it to another number, in milliseconds—such as 15000, which would have Windows wait 15 seconds instead of 20 before prompting you. It’s a good idea to start off lowering the number in increments of not more than fi ve seconds, to see how your computer responds. And don’t set it to lower than 5000, or you might lose data or your PC might not shut down properly.
Turn off unnecessary services
Services take time to shut down, so the fewer you run, the faster you can shut down.
This post first appeared on Windows Problems And Their Repairs, please read the originial post: here
