Windows 7 flashy startup animation increases your boot

By +Warwagon
in Microsoft (Windows)

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Grand Master

+Warwagon MVC

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Something about that Windows 7 start-up animation that bugs me. I have this feeling that the startup process will not go any farther until that flashy little thing swirls around the screen and comes together. With XP and vista if you had a fast ssd the loading bar would be there for a few seconds and then blink its gone. I feel that with Windows 7 you have to wait for that animation to appear.

Then master2k27 recommended turning off the GUI boot. So I did.

the result?

From the moment I press enter on "normal startup, until I get a cursor on the black screen"

SSD Laptop

With the GUI turned on 20.56 seconds

With the GUI turned off 16.53 seconds.

i7 920

With GUI - 41.81 seconds

Without GUI 34.47 seconds.

Try it for yourself.

To turn off the GUI boot go into Msconfig and click on the boot tab. Then check "No GUI boot". Though I prefer you time your startup time first before you turn it off so you have something to compare it to.

The method I used to time both boot times is this.

I first get the advanced startup menu up by pressing f8. I then select boot normally. I then put one finger on my watch and another on the enter key and press then both at the same time.

Edited by warwagon
Grand Master

+Warwagon MVC

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there is an option in windows for non GUI boot. forgot where :p

Wonder if it helps, and ya I know what you are referring too. I think its under msconfig. I should try it and time the boots.

Mentor

Nightwind Hawk

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Yeah, you can do a non-gui boot through msconfig (on the startup tab). The only problem with this (which hesitates me from doing it) is you will not see any error screens either if it hangs/pauses. But then again, I've never had any problems period so... I suppose I should do it too!

Proficient

Raikou Tch

Posted
Posted (edited)

Yeah I've thought that too. My hard drive isn't consistently doing anything until the animation starts, so I'm wondering if they could save a bit of time in there somewhere.

Edit: Interesting, I timed both disabled and enabled GUI-boot options, and the non-GUI boot was about 2 seconds faster.

Edited by Raikou Tch
Grand Master

devHead

Posted
Posted
Something about that Windows 7 start-up animation that bugs me. I have this feeling that the startup process will not go any farther until that flashy little thing swirls around the screen and comes together. With XP and vista if you had a fast ssd the loading bar would be there for a few seconds and then blink its gone. I feel that with Windows 7 you have to wait for that animation to appear.

You should read the Windows 7 blog about that animation; they actually changed its function and from where it runs in order to make sure there was no hesitation in it, but I doubt very very seriously that it slows the actual start up down. I've deleted the RSS feed from my bookmarks, but I'm sure if you do a Google search for Engineering Windows 7 you'll find it. It was pretty interesting. But I don't think it slows anything down. Remember in Vista, you had the loading bar, but then after that you had the glowing orb before the logon screen? There's no more orb in 7, it's straight to the logon screen from the 'Starting Windows' page. I would time it and see if there is a difference in boot times without it.

Grand Master

+Warwagon MVC

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Wonder if it helps, and ya I know what you are referring too. I think its under msconfig. I should try it and time the boots.

Ok I just tested it.

On my SSD Laptop.

From the moment I press enter on "normal startup, until I get a cursor on the black screen"

With the GUI turned on 20.56 seconds

With the GUI turned off 16.53 seconds.

Now i'm going to test it on my i7 920 ... brb

Grand Master

Trong

Posted
Posted

There's a chance that it could be the BIOS fault for the hanging times before the animation starts up. However, the Windows animation is always there for the same amount of time on all the computers in my house and it's the blank screen's time that varies.

Grand Master

null_

Posted
Posted
I've deleted the RSS feed from my bookmarks, but I'm sure if you do a Google search for Engineering Windows 7 you'll find it.

Here they are...

http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2008/08/2...erformance.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/02/1...-animation.aspx

Mentor

Nightwind Hawk

Posted
Posted
There's a chance that it could be the BIOS fault for the hanging times before the animation starts up. However, the Windows animation is always there for the same amount of time on all the computers in my house and it's the blank screen's time that varies.

No, I don't think he means the entire bootscreen is lagging... It starts by saying "Starting Windows" and then 5 seconds later or whatever, it does that animation. It's a "feature" :-P

But wow, the bootscreen cut 4 seconds off. Nice. I should try this...

Grand Master

Trong

Posted
Posted
No, I don't think he means the entire bootscreen is lagging... It starts by saying "Starting Windows" and then 5 seconds later or whatever, it does that animation. It's a "feature" :-P

But wow, the bootscreen cut 4 seconds off. Nice. I should try this...

Oh no, I got that hahaha. :p

I didn't mean to convey that it was actually "hanging". I was just referring to the black screen that said "Starting Windows". I was trying to figure out if Windows was actually loading any files during the "empty" screen.

I guess I forgot what the boot screen looked like cause I forgot that text was there before the logo showed up.

Grand Master

+Warwagon MVC

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OK the results on my i7 920 computer. From the time I press enter on boot normally until I see a white cursor

With GUI - 41.81 seconds

Without GUI 34.47 seconds.

I want other people in this thread to also try this and post your results.

Mentor

Nightwind Hawk

Posted
Posted
OK the results on my i7 920 computer. From the time I press enter on boot normally until I see a white cursor

With GUI - 41.81 seconds

Without GUI 34.47 seconds.

I want other people in this thread to also try this and post your results.

wow.... okay, that inspires me to try it now.

wow that is a big diffrance.

why do we even need to see the logo its at the bottom right of my desktop

?

Grand Master

null_

Posted
Posted
OK the results on my i7 920 computer. From the time I press enter on boot normally until I see a white cursor

With GUI - 41.81 seconds

Without GUI 34.47 seconds.

I want other people in this thread to also try this and post your results.

Interesting... how are you measuring the start-up time?

Grand Master

+Warwagon MVC

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Interesting... how are you measuring the start-up time?

I first get the advanced startup menu up by pressing f8. I then select boot normally. I then put one finger on my watch and another on the enter key and press then both at the same time.

Mentor

Nightwind Hawk

Posted
Posted

Time till white cursor at welcome screen (from the power button on a dell laptop):

with gui - 23 seconds

without gui (try #1) - 29 seconds

without guy (try #2) - 20 seconds

um.... lol. well, in conclusion, my computer isn't very consistent. perhaps it was getting used to the change the first try? either way, i think i can wait 3 extra seconds to see the animation. it's worth it :p

Grand Master

lnmnky

Posted
Posted
I first get the advanced startup menu up by pressing f8. I then select boot normally. I then put one finger on my watch and another on the enter key and press then both at the same time.

Have you tried any tests with windows sounds? I'm sure with boot and login sounds disabled it's quicker. Maybe it's placebo though. I don't want to reboot to test it though :p

Grand Master

+Warwagon MVC

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Time till white cursor at welcome screen (from the power button on a dell laptop):

with gui - 23 seconds

without gui (try #1) - 29 seconds

without guy (try #2) - 20 seconds

um.... lol. well, in conclusion, my computer isn't very consistent. perhaps it was getting used to the change the first try? either way, i think i can wait 3 extra seconds to see the animation. it's worth it :p

Upon my 2nd reboot test on my i7 the no gui was even faster yet. :D

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