Microsoft Windows 7 Questions & Answers
How to speed up Windows 7 loading time after welcome screen shows up?
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Hi, recently I feel the windows (7, 64-bit, updated) is starting to get even slower when booting desktop up, i.e. after the welcome screen, needs around 4 minutes to fully load. Although it might be somewhat operational since it launches the desktop, it is laggy as hell and I usually leave it to load completely. I'm using a small utility that recommended to stop some start-up services, which is already done. Sleep and hibernate aren't in the options list as I need to completely shut down the system every time, so I'd really like to optimize load time as much as possible.
Do you have any suggestions what should I do to speed it up?
Thanks.
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Let me tell you what I've done to speed up my Windows 7:
- stopped Aero effect
- stopped virus scanning at start-up
- stopped almost all start-up programs
- I often tweak my Windows registry files
You can also
- Disable the Search Indexing Feature of Windows 7. This feature is only useful if you perform frequent searches
- There are many services in Windows 7 that can be safely disabled without affecting the normal operation of the operating system. You can see a list of them here:
http://www.computingunleashed.com/list-of-services-in-windows-7-that-can.html
- Use the Ready Boost feature of the OS (if you have a spare flash drive of course)
*After plugging the flash drive open "Computer" right click on the device select "Ready Boost" and select "Use this device"
- Disable the gadgets from the Windows 7 Sidebar
- Use solid colors for desktop background and disable the dynamic wallpaper change
- Disable User Account Control. It is the very annoying feature notifying you about every program you`re about to install and asking you if you`re sure.
*Browse to the Control Panel -> User Accounts and Family Safety - > User account -> Click the User Account Control and drag the slider towards "Never notify"
I.P.K what exactly do you change in the registry to boost performance or you just use a software that clean it up? I know there are quite a few good programs like TuneUp utilities that can help a lot in optimizing and cleaning up registry, but never tried one. I'll probably check out some of the above recommendations and see how's that affecting the overall performance.
most of the registry cleanup software is crap. When they tell you that you have "152!!! errors!" they are often the cause of a lot of those "errors". While I can't say they are completely useless, I have been advised by an expert that spending money on them is a waste. ie An online sale for registry clean up found 100+ errors on my 1 year old lap top, "may effect performace, buy our software, now!" my current anti-virus-included registry cleaner struggles to find double digits of errors.
Plus, unless your hard drive is rather full, clean up won't do much.
Biggest thing would be to go to:
Start menu, type msconfig
then go to the start-up tab
from here disable anything that is not a must to have running. Programs you don't use often, programs that don't need to start with Windows, etc. Just make sure you know what it is.
I currently run an anti virus that has a system performance tab as well. It come from my ISP. It allows me to delay start a lot of programs as well, like my sidebar gadgets, and printer tools. Things I won't typically use in the first 5 min of turning on the computer.
Does anyone know of anything in windows out there that does this? or maybe an Open Source App?
Final thing, fire it up and just walk away for 2-3 min. Let it boot as much as possible without you giving it more to think about.
@storm13: I use software "ccleaner", it has option to tune your registry.
I did a couple of tweaks and the results are just fine, skipping about 27 seconds of boot time. So, here's the beef:
1. Installed Soluto (www.soluto.com), a free app for monitoring and managing your boot time, very useful. Went onto boot optimizer and delayed loading for later state:
- Java
- Windows search feature
2. Checked some of the suggestions above:
- Disabled Aero effect (via Right click>Personalize>Theme=Windows 7 basic)
- Disabled UAC
3. Results
- boot time before tweaks (total): 2:23 (25 seconds initial boot, the rest after welcome screen)
- boot time after tweaks (total): 1:56
I'd say is not something significant, but it is still an improvement. And considering that our systems are probably very different, someone else might get even better results.
P.S. The Windows 7 Basic theme actually speeds up the performance and loading of other apps. At least it seems to me that way now.
If you don't mind the Win98 appearance:
Open your start menu right click on computer, click properties
on the far left, click advanced system settings
In the performance section, click the settings button
Select "for best performace" radio button
An my computer I frequently run regcleaner (that is the program name), to clean up my dead registry entries. It also has a pretty good startup cleaner. If you remove the unneeded and/or unknown software from it, you'd be surprised how much faster the system loads up the OS. The skin of the OS (even if aero is on) won't give any noticeable difference when loading the system, it will when you start using it. You can remove the on screen widgets, but it won't give you more than a second or two improvement. For me the best software option is the first I mentioned and the best hardware one is to switch to solid-state drive.
One thing that make my PC faster - switch to Windows 7 Basic theme :)