Faster XP Boot?

[M4dm4N]

Why does it seem that my computer boots up so slowly, what can I fix?

[Dazzla Veteran]

If you're using XP, try bootvis on the front page. If you're using 9x go to run - then type "msconfig" without the quotes, check out what's starting up when you boot.

[UnaBonger]

You can also use MSCONFIG in XP. It's not as good as running BootVIS but it gives you a general idea of what is running at startup...

[sphere]

you could also try deleting prefetch files that are useless.

In the folder Windows/Prefetch

[CarlosMiguel]

i know that this is funny but can anyone help me using bootvis? i cannot understand how this thing will make xp boot faster...

[sphere]

Originally posted by CarlosMiguel

i know that this is funny but can anyone help me using bootvis? i cannot understand how this thing will make xp boot faster...

did you try searching?

here's just 1 thread i found http://neowin.net/bboard/showthread.php?s=...ghlight=bootvis

next time use the search tool...it's magic :alien:

[dev/null]

I'm not sure if this is the right way to do it, but it's the way that I do it.

1. select 'Next Boot' from the 'Trace' menu

2. restart your computer

3. select 'Optimize System' from the 'Trace' menu

then bootvis should do it's magic if I remember correctly

[CarlosMiguel]

Originally posted by dev/null

I'm not sure if this is the right way to do it, but it's the way that I do it.

1. select 'Next Boot' from the 'Trace' menu

2. restart your computer

3. select 'Optimize System' from the 'Trace' menu

then bootvis should do it's magic if I remember correctly

tnx man :) i really appreciate it :)

[+BeLGaRaTh Subscriber¹]

dev/null, WTF do u do when the window pops up with all the graphs, like boot activity, cpu usage etc?

[CarlosMiguel]

hey dev/null this bootvis really works :) tnx again... make my pc boot faster :) and it is noticable :)

[dev/null]

Originally posted by BeLGaRaTh

dev/null, WTF do u do when the window pops up with all the graphs, like boot activity, cpu usage etc?

If you mean what I think, then just select 'Optimize System' from the 'Trace' menu

[insanekiwi]

sphere: my prefetch fodle rcontains 130 files (~5mb). how do i know which ones i can remove?

[C}{$]

If you have two Hard disk (note hard disk not partitions) move the page file to the other hard disk... and make it smaller if you have more RAM.

Try a few of these tweaks too: http://www.winguides.com/registry/category.php/12/

[Dessimat0r]

Is a swap file faster on a striped RAID array, which Windows resides upon or on a seperate HD from the array...?

[lawtai]

you need to have task scheduler enabled in services for bootvis to work right? Cause it's giving me the error that it can't start scheduler, which I have disabled...

[CarlosMiguel]

;) oh man.. I LOVE NEOWIN SO MUCH.. .u can ask everything :p

[sphere]

Originally posted by insanekiwi

sphere: my prefetch fodle rcontains 130 files (~5mb). how do i know which ones i can remove?

Part of the filename should be from an existing .exe file.

for example: The winamp prefetch file is called WINAMP.EXE-0D0189CA.pf

If you don't use an applications often (or anymore) you can delete their prefetch file.

[CarlosMiguel]

Originally posted by sphere

Part of the filename should be from an existing .exe file.

for example: The winamp prefetch file is called WINAMP.EXE-0D0189CA.pf

If you don't use an applications often (or anymore) you can delete their prefetch file.

what are these prefetc files anyway? are they some kind of temp files?... are they all safe to delete?

[sphere]

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default....ments5_3oc3.asp

in short:

they are files that hold information to save time when loading the files they are associated with.

if you don't use certain programs you can delete the prefetch file that it has created.

if you delete a prefetch file for a program that still needs to load in the future, Windows will just create a new prefetch file.

:)

[icie]

I have no idea why this is, but on some computers that I run bootvis on, the boot actually slows down and the system becomes more unstable. However, my Duron 700 is booting really slow (like 4 minutes), so I will give it a try again...nothing to lose -- format, then ghost again if I stuff it up.

[CarlosMiguel]

what? 4 mins? my system is only k6-2 500MHZ... and it only takes 1 min to boot XP... may be ur system really needs to be formatted.. or check your start up programs... removing useless programs on startup speeds up ur start up time

[Steven]

before bootvis, 33secs, after bootvis 24secs :)

sweeeeeeeeet :)

[shinji257]

bootvis can make your system boot faster or slower depending on how it is used. The last time I used it, my boot time got majorly screwed up. You could say it added another 3 or 4 mins to an already long boot time.

[Jikosan]

sphere: my prefetch fodle rcontains 130 files (~5mb). how do i know which ones i can remove?

Just delete the entire folder. Windows will re-create the prefetch for you... according to a couple of WinXP guides on the net, it was recommended to delete the folder every once in a while.

[_void]

for a faster boot there a bunch of things to consider....

• having no autoexec.bat or config.sys
  
• removing as many things from startup as possible cause some programs have problems releasing the memory it used if it is loaded at startup vs. regular loading
  
• deleting the prefetch dir only works for some
  

i personally have a login.bat run at startup that contains the following:

NET SHARE ADMIN$ /DELETE

NET SHARE C$ /DELETE

NET SHARE D$ /DELETE

NET SHARE E$ /DELETE

del c:\windows\prefetch\*.* /q