Speed up Vista boot?

[Ironman273]

I read this but then some sites are saying it's a hoax. Any thoughts?

Vista can boot faster on a multi-core processor - hoax

Sun, 2007-09-09 11:24 ? admiHoaxb>

The following hoax is making the rounds. The truth is that the setting you're encouraged to change should in all normal cases be left to automatic. The following instructions are believed to be pure snake oil, but they are repeated here, just in case you want to test them anyway.Instructionsb>

This hint is only useful if your computer has more than one processor core. Modern processors that have two, four, or more cores can benefit from this.

A few people have mentioned that with the tweak, Windows Mail starts instantly, as opposed to needing several seconds before. This is unexpected, because it shouldn't have anything to do with booting. If anybody can confirm or even explain this, please add a comment below.Warningb>

This is not for the faint-hearted. Some users have experienced various problems after applying this tweak. On some computers an activation was required. Also if you're using Bitlocker, you'll want to make sure that you've got access to the BDE FEK file or the recovery password. When you reboot after applying this tweak, it will trigger the BDE boot protection.Step by step tweak instructionsb>

By default, Vista boots only from one core. To use more cores already at boot time, you have to change a manual setting as follows.

1. Click on: [start]
   
2. Click on: Run...
   
3. Type in: msconfig
   
4. Click on: [OK]
   
5. Click on the tab: Boot
   
6. Adjust the number of cores to the number your processor actually has.
   
7. Click on: [OK]
   

The next time you boot, Windows Defender may try to block msconfig, which was trying to run to tell you that you had made some changes. Msconfig always throws a UAC (User Access Control) prompt and this causes it to be blocked. Right click on the Blocked Program icon in the system tray (normally lower right) and run the blocked program. Put a tick in the box to not show you this again.

The speedup may not be overwhelming, as much of the boot process is disk-bound, but I guess we gladly take what we can get for free.User result statisticsb>

If you decide to try this anyway, please see the results of others and report your own results here. If you don't want to vote right now, but just want to look at the results, click below, then click on the Results tab.

1. Speed
   
2. Problems

Source through Gizmodo

[Evolution]

It's a troubleshooting option, to determine how many cores Windows will recognize.

[Guest]

I prefer to use sleep mode to speed up boot times ;).

[Malechai1]

I prefer to use sleep mode to speed up boot times ;) .

with you on that one.. i never do a full shut down. i'll even put it in hibernate instead because its faster to come out of hibernate than a cold boot

[ViperAFK]

I'm pretty sure this tweak has been debunked as not doing anything before. Vista already knows how much cores you have and will use them during boot.

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

so wait... this is a hoax? changing the Boot tab does not in fact speed up boot? im confused.

i use sleep during the day when im not using the computer, but i then turn off the computer completely when i'm sleeping or at work. not sure why, tbh.

[Ironman273]

Well, some people are reporting faster boot up, although it could just as well be a placebo effect. Even the site I linked doesn't really debunk it, just gets people's opinion of it.

Mine is on 24/7 since I remote in and am usually doing something on it.

[HeartsOfWar]

this is bogus... the steps above simply sets the /NUMPROC flag within the boot.ini file.

As Evolution already posted, the /NUMPROC flag is a way to limit Windows to a certain number of the available processors. If your system had 2 processors, you could set the flag as follows /NUMPROC=1 and Windows wouldn't utilize the second processor.

[Hurmoth]

this is bogus... the steps above simply sets the /NUMPROC flag within the boot.ini file.

Technically, there is no boot.ini file in Vista, but it does the equivalent to what it would do in XP to the boot.ini file.

[HeartsOfWar]

Technically, there is no boot.ini file in Vista, but it does the equivalent to what it would do in XP to the boot.ini file.

touch?

[Popcorned]

I benchmarked this option, it makes the boot slower by around 10 to 20 seconds

[Tikimotel]

This option ( /numproc in boot.ini ) is only there to test for defective CPU's.

Disable a CPU at boot time to see if it's defective.

On boot, when the kernel is loaded, Windows always uses all the available CPU's in your system.

Only a very short time during kernel initialization is your computer only using 1 CPU (when you have more available that is..).

[afusion]

Yeah Sleep is now the new shutdown :laugh:

[Skulltrail-old]

This "tweak" doesn't necessary speed up boot process. I've actually done it before, learned about it a long time ago, and when I try to enter into Safe Mode, the screen loads EXTREMELY slow.

To explain it better: how do you read? (English) You look at each word from left to right, once you reach the end of a line you move on to the next line and start off again from the left and move your way to the right.

It does this when loading Safe Mode; "reading" each file executed for Safe Mode, and that takes about 20 minutes to finish when it is usually instantly under one core.

[Jorge Mario]

with you on that one.. i never do a full shut down. i'll even put it in hibernate instead because its faster to come out of hibernate than a cold boot

Totally right!

[White Cuban]

same as other guys here, i only reboot when necassery by updates or so, when i leave the computer i hibernate and only go to sleep mode when i go for 2-3 hours max to save power, and because it's for some reason sluggish if i wake it after that

[Scorbing]

same as other guys here, i only reboot when necassery by updates or so, when i leave the computer i hibernate and only go to sleep mode when i go for 2-3 hours max to save power, and because it's for some reason sluggish if i wake it after that

Hey I noticed that as well, especially on XP. Waking up from sleep mode makes the computer sluggish. I wonder why that happens?