Irritating slow boot of WindowsXP Professional

Hi,
Since I installed WindowsXP Professional Service Pack 2 I have the following problem: Booting WindowsXP stops at showing the desktop background and only after a few minutes it shows the program icons and the Start button.
One of the MS-people advised me to close the Explorer via Task Management and then starting it again, but that does not help.
Is there anyone who knows the solution to speed it up? Thanks in advance.

Jan

 

How much RAM do you have ? Seems like a RAM problem to me.

Also try running chkdsk /f & defragmentation as loading SP2 on top of XP is like loading a new OS alltogether & your files may be fragmented.

 

janvanderpeet--Lack of sufficient RAM could certainly be one reason.
Here is Microsoft's advice on the subject
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;898583

Often one of the reasons for slow start up is that you have too many programs starting at boot. So in addition to the suggestion already made, you might want to Start|Run|type msconfig|OK|Startup tab and see what programs have a check to the left of each. In WinXP you need very few third party programs to start at boot, like antivirus, antispyware, firewall, perhaps some wireless peripherals. The others can be started only when you want to use them.
Post back if you need more info. A helpful page for advice on whether a program is needed at boot is
http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php

P.S. The Windows programs that start at boot are shown elsewhere, not in msconfig. But normally you do not need to worry about them causing slow start up.

 

That is the point where systemtray and background programs are loaded. If the harddrive LED is flashing constantly during that time it probably means that Windows has run out of enough free RAM and needs to use virtual memory (pagefile on the HDD). You should be able to do Ctrl-Alt-Del, click the Task Manager button and go the Performance tab, watch the figures for Physical Memory -> Available. Windows won't allow "Available" to go to zero, but if it goes low things will be getting "farmed out" to pagefile.

Getting more RAM will allow more "physical memory ", but you are still loading all those things in the background. I go to programs in the SystemTray (or open them from Start -> Programs) and look in Tools -> Options. Turn off "Run at Startup" and "Autoupdates ". Open the program yourself and run update ocassionally when you think you need to. Most programs you install nowdays default to running their "helper" utilities in the background (printer, scanner, etc., software are starting to run three, maybe more), welshjim listed the ones you only really need.

Even antispyware does not have to run in the background unless you do a lot of web surfing at "not so reputable" sites, it only needs regular checks. If you are going to say yes to "Do you want to install CoolWebSearch?" or "Download and install this great Internet Shopping Helper" you are going to get it anyway. Ripping it back out with antispyware will be crux as to whether the system is still stable. Maybe the moral is not to rely on automatic systems, but to look into the source and gather enough information to "look after yourself" on the Internet.
(Matt steps off soapbox )

Matt

 

Look up of startup and background processes: http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=39425

Regards - Charles