Windows XP boot up

[flango]

Hi All

Firstly apologies if there is an answer to this in another thread but I've searched and can't find anything so if someone could help or point me in the right direction I would be grateful.

I want to make my Windows XP boot faster, when I start up after logging in it takes an eternity, sometimes as long as 10 minutes to become stable and stop thrashing the hard drive. I have looked at the processes running in Windows Task manager and there is nothing out of the ordinary running but something must be running in the background, How do I find it and is there a way of speeding up my start up, many thanks

 

[Dieselman]

In Task Manager look at the processes tab to see what is using all the memory and CPU power.

 

[flango]

In Task Manager look at the processes tab to see what is using all the memory and CPU power.

The only major things running are the anti virus and firewall updates which is normal, when these stop even when the processes tab is open and no processes running (or very little visible activity) something is thrashing the hard drive and I can't find out what

 

[Dieselman]

Check the RAM is being addressed properly, is it showing as there.?
Kill off the AV and firewall stuff and check again then do a scandisk, disk cleanup and a defrag.

 

[flango]

Check the RAM is being addressed properly, is it showing as there.?
Kill off the AV and firewall stuff and check again then do a scandisk, disk cleanup and a defrag.

You read my mind a bit of disk housekeeping was next on the agenda, will let you know as I think the defrag alone may take some considerable time as it's not been done for a while Thanks

 

[Dieselman]

You read my mind

Which was easier than your numberplate...

 

[Frank O' Phile]

Here's good link on what services do what, and you decide whether or not you need them.

Made a few of these changes to my laptop and it isnt so clogged up now and runs better..

http://gleez.com/articles/it-systems/how-to-boot-xp-60-times-faster-somewat-lengthy-but-useful

 

[normanr]

You read my mind a bit of disk housekeeping was next on the agenda, will let you know as I think the defrag alone may take some considerable time as it's not been done for a while Thanks

I think Dieselman will agree with me you should defrag your computer at least once a month and more if you use it a lot because it will be hunting all over your hard drive trying to sort things out.
If that does not work I suggest you test the hard drive for problems with free software you can get from the maker of your hard drive.

 

[Crazyjester900]

RAM is the most important thing.
A little thing people can forget is desktop icon and folders.

If you have a lot of crap on your desktop that will slow it down


Brad

 

[Dragon]

Time for a new hard drive. It depends what you got. You didn't give us more info about the processor speed, what you downloaded, what brand and how much memory it got.

Been to a customer last Thur, it got viruses on it. It got Norton and flagged out several viruses but couldn't remove it because it was not activated. It couldn't be activated because the internet was disabled due to corrupted googletoolbar.dll. It couldn't open IE because of the corrupted dll. Eventually it just hung up and not respond.

My recommendation is to backup your personal files and reinstall XP again. Thereafter look after your PC and don't go to dodgy sites or install anything downloaded from websites you don't know.

 

[stevesey]

Here's good link on what services do what, and you decide whether or not you need them.

Made a few of these changes to my laptop and it isnt so clogged up now and runs better..

http://gleez.com/articles/it-systems/how-to-boot-xp-60-times-faster-somewat-lengthy-but-useful

Ditto to that.

There are loads of services you can get rid of that will speed up start-up. How many services does task manager show at present - most of our home machines have around 30 after boot - whereas out of the box XP can have 45-50. Also don't forget all those (useless) little helper icons that programs insist on installing in the task bar - most of them have a don't run at startup/don't start with windows option.

 

[GordonTarling]

Check how many fonts you have installed - they often are installed without asking and use up memory as well as time when booting. I suspect you'll probably have hundreds and probably use less than a dozen or so.

 

[stevesey]

Does that still apply to XP/Vista? I know it did with 3.1 and 95 - I thought they'd fixed it after that.

 

[flango]

RAM is the most important thing.
A little thing people can forget is desktop icon and folders.

If you have a lot of crap on your desktop that will slow it down


Brad

Think this may be one of my problems will clear some cr*p of the desktop, lots of shortcuts and temp files on there at the min thanks

 

[flango]

Time for a new hard drive. It depends what you got. You didn't give us more info about the processor speed, what you downloaded, what brand and how much memory it got.

Been to a customer last Thur, it got viruses on it. It got Norton and flagged out several viruses but couldn't remove it because it was not activated. It couldn't be activated because the internet was disabled due to corrupted googletoolbar.dll. It couldn't open IE because of the corrupted dll. Eventually it just hung up and not respond.

My recommendation is to backup your personal files and reinstall XP again. Thereafter look after your PC and don't go to dodgy sites or install anything downloaded from websites you don't know.

Sorry there was a little lack of detail in the OP system as follows

Intel Celeron 2.80 Ghz
1Gb RAM
2 x 180 Gb Hard Drives (2nd drive for Music only)
Running Windows XP Pro SP3

Running Office 2007 and I tunes as main programmes
AVG Anti Virus Free Version 8 & PC Tools Firewall

Most of my work is done on my laptop (Dell lattitude D420) which is quick.

Have now done some disk maintainence and defrag and running better but still slow compared to my lap top. Problem is desk top gets very little use these days so I think when you turn it on it goes for major downloads of windows, AV and firewall updates which cause the problem

Will keep on trying to optimise but might go for the XP reinstall and some more RAM after my hols, thanks for the help

 

[Craig Spain]

I downloaded ccleaner, it has a start up menu option, so you can delete programs from the start up list that are not essential, hence faster starting. Its free as well, which is always a bonus

 

[oldcro]

If your using Vista (not sure about XP) you could try "Readyboost" which utilises a USB memory stick. I have not tried it myself, but looks like it's worth an experiment.

 

[flango]

If your using Vista (not sure about XP) you could try "Readyboost" which utilises a USB memory stick. I have not tried it myself, but looks like it's worth an experiment.

Not heard of that Thanks will investigate

 

[Frank O' Phile]

Sorry there was a little lack of detail in the OP system as follows

Intel Celeron 2.80 Ghz
1Gb RAM
2 x 180 Gb Hard Drives (2nd drive for Music only)
Running Windows XP Pro SP3

Running Office 2007 and I tunes as main programmes
AVG Anti Virus Free Version 8 & PC Tools Firewall

Most of my work is done on my laptop (Dell lattitude D420) which is quick.

Have now done some disk maintainence and defrag and running better but still slow compared to my lap top. Problem is desk top gets very little use these days so I think when you turn it on it goes for major downloads of windows, AV and firewall updates which cause the problem

Will keep on trying to optimise but might go for the XP reinstall and some more RAM after my hols, thanks for the help

As you are using Office 2007 and iTunes, I'll bet there is some kind of pre-loader program running at start up. Remove these from the startup menu as they only speed up loading as and when you use them. (unless you use the a lot)

 

[merc-c]

I see you have AVG 8.
I had it on my system after using their earlier versions.
It slowed my boot up right down even after turning off most options.
I switched to Avira antivir and have been fine since then.