Recommended Posts

I read about bootvis and found that it wouldn't do no difference?!

What I have used is XPLite, and removed _a lot_ of stuff that I dont need (won't speed up, but it lowers the size of windows on disk) and then I also used Tweak Manager to disable unused gui stuff etc. And last I used Black Vipers Windows XP service guide.

All in all I have a bootup of around 25sec now, which is ok for a htpc I think.

I'll have a look at TuneXP though!

Thanks :)

speeding up OS boot time is a pretty senseless combo of RAID arrays + fast HDs + fast RAM and lots of it + fast CPU..

what you need to focus on is the time it takes a certain mobo to go through POST.. my buddy's Intel board (forgot the model) does the POST routine almost instantly once switched on.. once his monitor gets a signal, the XP logo is already loading.. a few secs later, he's at the login screen.. and about 10 more, he's at the desktop.. fuc*in slick..

all the while, my 1999 PC-Chips Award BIOS cheapo mobo takes a whopping 40 secs just going through POST.. (N)

my question to you is, is there a jumper switch, BIOS update, whatever the hell i can do so i don't have to see the damn POST routine anymore?

I found that ati's drivers make the boot process very long.

Whats strange is if you install a service pack AFTER you install the drivers, it boots very fast, yet if you install the drivers before the service pack, it lags. Strange but true.

As far as bootvis goes, it only seems to work after the first couple of boots. After that it boots even slower than it was before running bootvis. I don't recommend it.

For services, I only disable the most unnecessary ones. I found that going nuts and disabling everything that black vipers site says is safe just causes more problems. What I found is the best way to tweak the services is reboot your pc. Open the services window, now look at all the services that are currently running. Set the ones that are set to manual to start automatically.

If youre on broadband and your IP dosent change very often, or you have a private IP, set it up statically.

Use a good offline defragmentation tool. I use O&O defrag. I set it up to defrag all my drives every morning using the space method. If you run it daily, it completes within minutes, and your drives are always running top notch. People say NTFS isn't affected by fragmentation, thats total BS. If the files are fragmented, the heads still have to move all over the disk to read a single file, it's a physical limitation that has nothing to do with your file system.

I havent timed my boot up yet, so I cant really compare it. You know that scrolling bar in the boot screen? It makes it across once and I'm at my logon screen.

Whats strange is if you install a service pack AFTER you install the drivers, it boots very fast, yet if you install the drivers before the service pack, it lags. Strange but true.

Isn't service pack after drivers the same as drivers before service pack? Durrh. :huh:

i have an Asus p4p800 deluxe board and i have a MAJOR problem with the POST routine. it takes abt a whopping 10-14 seconds. I think its got something to do with checking for RAID drives etc, of which i hv none. i only hv a plain and simple Seagate 40 gb hardrive at 7200 rpm. can soemone help me shave my POST routine time. otherwise my windows loading isnt all tht bad.

thx

danish

wow...i just took a stop watch and timed my pc from cold off. here are the PATHETIC results:

Event Time

Power 0 mins 0 seconds

Windows Boot Screen 0 mins 21.22 seconds

Windows Logon Screen 0 mins 46.77 seconds

Desktop appears and

application shortcut on

desktop started 1 mins 27 seconds

Im runing Windows XP professional with service Pack 1a and all the hotfixes, on a P4 2.4Gh 533 bus on an Asus P4p800 deluxe board with a seagate 7200 rpm drive. I have norton antivirus and internet security 2003 loading at startup along with msn messenger, and 1 or 2 small memory residents (5 button mouse driver, multimedia keyboard driver etc)

i think i need MAJOR help here.

danish

ps: already downloaded and used TuneXP. Not much help. In the past ive also tried bootvis, but every time i used it, it actually ended up increasing my boot time, so this time im not gonna touch it :p

1. uninstall norton and use some lighter AV (NOD32 for instance).

2. Click Start -> Run and type "regedit". go ahead and delete pretty much everything in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run (other than REALLY important stuff like AV).

3. delete everything in the start menu under "Startup"

4. click Start -> Run and type "services.msc". Disable all unnecessary services. You can find out more about that through google. Basically you can safely disable "Messenger", "SSDP Discovery" and "Remote Registry"

i use Pentium II 300 with 256 MB RAM and i can start using my pc (with AV finish loading) after 30 seconds from cold boot.

heres a list of programs that are usable for makin' windows xp boot faster

Tune XP

Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel msconfig a lot easier

O&O Defrag V6.5 Professional Editiondefragging with the complete\name option helps at shortening the boot

Cacheman

-you can also disable services with Black Viper's Windows XP Home and Professional Service Configurations

-if you have symantec AV ,turn the services to manual and dont make it startup

-make your windows folder smaller(there a article here in neowin but i cant find it)

-delete your prefetch folder(in the windows folder)

-try not to have a lot of virtual drive in your pc(like with Alcohol 120 %)

-whats the use of having a floppy drive?just disable it,it could save a couple of seconds :laugh:

in hardware device manager, figure out what channel your HDD is on and disable the other IDE channel completly, or if you have a HDD on one and CDrom on the other, disable the slave parts if they are both set as masters. Also do this in bios.

It saves alot of mucking around and autodetcting and trust me, it will cut a few valuable seconds off boot time.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • EU needs the money, and the EUC lawyers dream at night about more of those huge commissions... Personally, if companies do things I don't like I don't purchase or use their products. I can think of few things worse than the horrid specter of government designed & "approved" software. But I guess things are different in the EU. I'd likely feel differently about this stuff if the lawyers did it pro bono, and the billion-dollar fines were rebated to the consumers the EUC claims it is protecting--but that never happens. The bizarre thing is that EU consumers seem unaware that all those fines come back to the companies forced to pay them in higher costs for the goods and services those companies sell them. Why that bit of logic escapes their attention is puzzling. So, now, we just sit back and wait on the next pretext the EUC lawyers come up with to rob these companies whose products no one in the EU is forced to buy and use in the first place. Rinse, repeat. It's become a very addictive habit of the EUC.
    • When companies do "opt-out" it's because they know that no one will opt-in...
    • the chip might be a binned 5090 so no, youre actually getting the 5090
    • How to set custom folder icons in Windows 11 File Explorer by Usama Jawad Although there are many third-party tools like Windhawk, FlyOOBE, DeskScapes 2026, and more that can be used to customize and tweak Windows 11 according to your preferences, many people often forget that the operating system natively offers a lot of configurability too. One such handy option is available inside File Explorer, where you can set custom folder icons to personalize your experience very quickly. File Explorer is an interface that Windows 11 users leverage rather heavily, so it can get quite boring looking at default icons. It can also be a bit tedious reading the text of each item to navigate to the folder you need. In cases like these, custom folder icons can come in quite handy as they allow you to not only personalize File Explorer, but also offer meaningful aesthetics that can make navigation quicker. Here is how to configure custom folder icons in Windows 11: Download icon files (.ico) from a third-party website of your choice. There are lots of free options online, like Icon Archive. You'll also be able to download them directly from Google Images Open File Explorer Navigate to the folder you want to customize Right-click the folder Select Properties Go to the Customize tab Select Change Icon If you want, you can select a native icon from the Windows directory, but for the purpose of this guide, we'll select the third-party .ico file that we downloaded. As such, select Browse Navigate to the .ico file and double-click it Click Apply, followed by OK That's all there is to it! It shouldn't take more than a minute after downloading the .ico file of your choice. The good news is also that you are not married to the icon you set; you can restore it to the default icon by simply selecting Restore Defaults in the interface mentioned in step 8. It's a very easy way to customize File Explorer, with any changes in this regard being quickly reversible. I would also recommend using View > Extra large icons in File Explorer so that you can properly enjoy the aesthetics. You can also download the entire Object Desktop package. Object Desktop includes programs such as Fences, Start11, Groupy, SoundPackager, DeskScapes and Multiplicity. Disclaimer: Neowin's relationship to Stardock
    • Teams on macOS has a major bug for some users, and Microsoft is rolling out guidance by Usama Jawad Teams is one of the most used online communication and collaboration tools especially in enterprise and school environments. It is available on a variety of platforms including Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, and the web. As such, it is a major problem when users on any of the aforementioned platforms get affected. In its Message Center advisory MC1392559, Microsoft acknowledged a bug impacting Teams customers on certain versions of macOS a few weeks ago. Basically, if affected users start sharing their screen, they'll see a black or blank screen, experience interruptions while sharing, and even face complete failure in screen sharing functionality. This is impacting customers using macOS versions older than Tahoe 26.4, and PCs which are resource-constrained on disk and memory. Interestingly, the scope of this issue appears to be limited as Microsoft has only listed Government Community Cloud (GCC), GCC High, and Department of Defense (DoD) as the affected platforms. Since it can be confusing to customers when the bug appears randomly and troubleshooting methods aren't always obvious, Microsoft is working on introducing some in-product guidance that automatically gets shown to users when a screen sharing failure is detected. They'll be asked to retry sharing their screen and will also be requested to update their macOS version, when applicable. If that is not possible, the Redmond tech giant has urged users to apply a mitigation that involves navigating to Teams Settings > General > Screen sharing > Use Mac OS native sharing. A restart isn't required. Regardless, Microsoft has recommended IT admins to inform their helpdesks about this issue, update their internal documentation, communicate the problem across the organization, and update macOS Tahoe 26.4 devices, where possible. The in-product guidance will begin rolling out later this month and should hopefully be available to all by mid-August.
  • Recent Achievements

    • One Month Later
      pahariyaseo earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      pahariyaseo earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      hadiaali45 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      arone_24 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Reacting Well
      flexorcist earned a badge
      Reacting Well
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      414
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      143
    3. 3
      Nick H.
      89
    4. 4
      +Edouard
      82
    5. 5
      neufuse
      72
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!