Solutions to ''Slow System Startup''


This list is "Designed for Windows XP"

1. Defrag your hard drive. Use the built in XP defragmenter (dfrg.msc). It's the
only one that properly optimizes your system's prefetching to speed up boot time.

2. Go to Microsoft's website and download BootVis.exe. It will optimize your prefetching even further than the built in defragmenter.

3. Go to Start->Run... and type or paste "Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks".
This will start a built in optimization routine that runs in the System Idle Process
and shows up as "rundll32.exe" in task manager. It normally runs automatically every
3 days. It will run for 15 mins to half an hour, so don't try to do anything too
intensive while its running. If you get sick of it running, you should probably
log off or restart to be safe, rather than killing the process.

4. Delete anything that you don't need in the Start->Programs->Startup folder, and in the Registry under HKLM->Software->Microsoft->Windows->Run and HKCU->Software->Microsoft->Windows->Run.

5. Go to Start->Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Services or go to Start->Run...
and type "services.msc" to display services running on your machine. About 1/3 should be automatic, 1/3 should be manual, and 1/3 should be disabled, IMHO. If you don't know which to change, search google for "XP services" and read one of the many webpages that describe each service.

6. Use a partition manager to create a separate partition for your swap-file. Set
its size to about 2.5 times the amount of physical RAM you have. You can do this
by right-clicking my computer and selecting Properties->Advanced tab->Performance section->Settings button->Advanced tab again->Virtual Memory section->Change button.

7. If you installed Service Pack 1, make sure you also install Service Pack 2 from the microsoft updates site since Service Pack 1 can dramatically increase the boot time for your system (though Service Pack 2 corrects this).

8. Repeat steps 1-3.

Ideally, XP on a clean install should boot in about 12 seconds from the time that
you see the XP logo to useable (can open a program). Don't use Norton SpeedDisk--It may slow your XP system boot time by about 6 seconds.

Good post Guest!

I would suggest a better defragger than that provided by Microsoft - it is basic!
I would also recommend the use of a firewall [Microsofts', is again, very basic] and just to be sure it is blocking the 'nasties', use a spybot detector and/or ad. detector.