Speeding Up Boot Time

Even though I've only got Norton Anti-Virus and no other programs loading at boot, the boot time seems a bit slow -- between 40-50 seconds before I get to the desktop, with half of that time spent sitting at the Welcome screen. I'm using XP home, SP3.

Is Bootvis a safe and useful tool for speeding up boot performance? I read about it on an old XP Tips site.

Or is there another approach to speeding up boot times?

Or should I just forget about it and be grateful I've got a system that works?

 

Thanks, Evan, but I've already defragged my disk and run disk cleanup, and given that I've got a brand new, week-old install of XP, I doubt that my registry is in serious need of defragging.

Likewise, I've already turned off some services as recommended by BlackViper, and as I mentioned, I've got nothing except Norton Anti Virus loading at startup.

Because of the above, I figured that my slower boot time of 40-50 seconds (versus 30 on my old XP machine) was either due to some drivers loading that need updating, or was just a fact of life that I should live with.

Do you know if Bootvis is safe to use?

 

Slip from Pete whose recommended program I'll try. I assume you're saying that there may be programs loading at startup that aren't indicated in the startup tab of msconfig, right?

And Pete, do you suggest I not use Bootvis?

 

Okay, I just ran that Starter program, Pete, and it showed only the two Symantex programs -- ccApp.exe and SNDMon.exe -- loading at startup.

I did notice a couple of unexpected processes running even though the apps behind them are not currently open -- an AOLascd.dll driver for my wife's AOL installation (rarely used) and an AppleMobileDevice service (which may be related to Itunes, the only Apple product I've got on my machine).

In services, the only unexpected news is that Acronis True Image is running a scheduler and a "try and decide" service -- neither of which I use -- plus an AOL connectivity service and the Apple Mobile Device engine. Oh yeah, and I have a Canon camera access library service for my digital camera programs.

I assume I can shut these five services off, correct?

One more thing: I noticed a service I never saw before called the Bonjour Service, which supposedly "Enables hardware devices and software services to automatically configure themselves on the network and advertise their presence, so that users can discover and use those services without any unnecessary manual setup or administration." Do you know what that is, and I can safely shut it off?

 

Bonjour Service come with Apple software!

Your slowdown is Norton.

Mike

 

Shutting down the above services (except for Bonjour) maybe saved 4-5 seconds -- maybe!

So unless the delay is caused by a funky driver loading, I can't see what else might be making my fresh XP install load faster than my old creaky XP system.

If Bootvis is safe to use, would it tell me that?

 

slip from Mike. Thanks for telling me what Bonjour is -- since I don't share music over a LAN I assume I can shut it down in services.

As for Norton, if that's the slowdown then I suppose I better live with it because automatic virus checking and definitions updating is the one thing I do want to have running.

 

Dkline

DAF will do what BootVis does for you! Yes BootVis is safe!

Download Dial-A-Fix (DAF)
http://wiki.djlizard.net/Dial-a-fix#...C_and_articles

Click the HammerHead at bottom to go to the second DAF page.

Here do the below

Process Idle Tasks

Mike

 

10-4 on living with it since you have it!

Hope you don't have Zone Alarm also!

You might want to look at my Services tweaks below.

Clean and tweak services

In services stop and disable all of the below just to get them out of the way for now for trouble shooting purposes.

Nothing is un-installed or deleted only disabled from running!

They can be put back anytime later but I would not, as none of them are needed by most home users and very few business users. Basically stuff M$ thought you should have.

Disabled uses no memory (RAM) and no CPU cycles.
Manual uses the RAM but a small amount of CPU.
Auto and not started they use even more RAM and CPU.
Auto and started even more RAM and CPU ..

Now in this case we disabling for trouble shooting purposes. But when we finish if you leave them all off until it is noticed that you need one (not likely for 99%) then it can be enabled.

Leaving these all off, then becomes a performance tweak/boost as they free some RAM and CPU cycles! Special note. If you are going to pick and choose then be aware that the small amount of RAM and CPU cycles of each one individually is not significant but as a group it is! So if you need most of them (or just think you do because you don't) then just as well enable them all)!

DNS Client
Fast User switching
Indexing service
Messenger
Net logon
Net.TCP Port Sharing
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing
IPsec services
QoS RSVP
Remote Registry
Uninterruptable power supply
Universal Plug and play
Web Client
Windows media player Network Sharing

IF you are using a wired network card and "NOT" using wireless on this computer then you can
also disable

Wireless Zero configuration

This is only used on computers with a wireless NIC like a Laptop. Do not disable Wireless Zero configuration on a Laptop. Has nothing to do with other wireless hardware like wireless routers etc.

In short if this computer has a CAT 5 or 6 cable and no ability to connect wirelessly if that cable is unplugged, then you can disable Wireless Zero configuration.

This is not to be confused with Wired Auto Config do not disable that!
========================================================
Cleaners Cleaner is faster!

D/L install and run ATF-Cleaner clear all except passwords in all browsers you have. Run repeatedly until no more found.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/ATF_Cleaner_d4949.html

D/L and install CCleaner: Clean temps and registry. Run both (temp and registry) repeatedly until no more found.
http://www.ccleaner.com/download/builds get Slim version

Mike

 

Thanks for all your help, guys. I'll give DAF a whirl. Bootvis doesn't seem to run on my machine -- don't know why, but maybe that's God's way of telling me not to fix what ain't broken.

 

Btw, I can't seem to find the control for turning up those little captioned screen tips, as when I move the mouse over to click restart and a little caption opens that says, "restarts computer. "

Anyone know how to do that?

 

Check out AutoRuns from SysInternals which I believe is really comphrehensive.

Re: Bootvis
Wasn't it a predecessor to the current "architecture" now standard in XP releases with the implementation of Prefetch and periodic defrags that uses the Prefetch info to "optimize" files used when those apps start, including boot files?

 

You mean, turning them off?
Disable Balloon Tips