Meter or other device to follow start up activity

Is there a meter or some other device that can be added to follow the progress of the start up procedure when booting up / logging on? (Preferably something that could be added to the lower tray and show log-on progress.)

My new laptop seems to take 3 or 4 minutes - and it would be helpful if I could glance at something that would tell me what it's doing and/or how much longer it will be before it's ready to begin using.

 

Hello fantasma,

There are a few "meters" that I know of, but they don't meter startups specifically, just how long the system is up.

Startup Delay, while not a metering program - it's for evenly timing startups, has the option to display the apps that are loading and indicates when they are finished http://www.r2.com.au/software.php?page=2&show=startdelay

However, 3, 4 minutes for startups to load indicates there is something wrong. Look thru this post on stratups, how to find out whether needed or not and what to do about them: http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=39425

The other obvious issue is RAM, how much to you have?

Regards - Charles

 

Good to know, I was aware that it wasn't available anymore from MS.

Regards - Charles

 

I am not sure if this will be of any help but I was looking at a friends computer and found the same problem. The were running WinXP Home and they only had 128mb RAM. How much do you have? The min should be 256mb which will be better and run the startup faster but I think higher than 256mb would be better.

Just thought I would share my experience.

 

The computer has a Celeron processor and is running on 244 MB RAM.

Thanks for all the feed back. I'll access the "msconfig" files to see if removing some of the tasks improves things.

Thanks again!

 

Removing some startup items certainly should help but be aware that you are a little below the amount of memory needed to make XP behave and you have less than half the amount needed to make it run smoothly.

Given the low cost of memory these days, you would be doing yourself a huge favor to install 512Mb.

 

Arie ...

The file available for download from your site is dated 3-25-2002, but the file discussed is the updated one (7-16-2003). Are the two files the same except for the Hyper-Threading fix in the updated one?

 

Hi Fantasma,

I can recommend a small programme called Process Explorer, available here
It shows exactly what is going on during the start-up delay, and can be used to kill processes if necessary. I have it running in place of the task manager, it sits in the task bar showing CPU usage, and can be called up with a right click on the icon if a process or programme hangs.
But - you will still need some more memory for XP to be smooth!

Roger