Your Boot Length

[TromboneAl]

Time it from dead cold to the point at which you can start working.

One obvious failing of Windows is that it doesn't start up immediately. That could be done technologically. Unfortunately the Hibernate function doesn't work on my desktop machine.

 

[astromeria]

Who knows? I only reboot my secondhand PowerBook every few weeks when I install some software update--and then it always surprises me how fast it comes up (former PC user here). A Mac sleeps like a baby, wakes up nicely every time. Unlike PCs, which sometimes don't wake up at all. But sometimes I miss using a PC--I haven't put in the same level of effort to learn the in's & out's of my mac.

 

[grumpy]

I second Astromeria's comments re mac. I have a desktop windows machine that takes longer to come out of hibernation than my new iBook takes to cold boot. I also normally do not reboot the iBook, just let it go to sleep by closing the lid. It wakes up in just seconds every time.

Grumpy

 

[REWahoo]

My boot length is 12 inches, a size 10.

 

[Lazarus]

Intel Imac comes out of hybernate in about 3sec.

 

[Cool Dood]

I wouldn't know, I leave the computer running all day, every day. Rebooting is for wimps!

 

[wabmester]

One obvious failing of Windows is that it doesn't start up immediately.  That could be done technologically.  Unfortunately the Hibernate function doesn't work on my desktop machine.

I've heard that this will finally be fixed. No idea what took them so long. Intel's Napa-64 platform for laptops includes a fast CPU (Merom), fast Wi-Fi with MIMO, and fast booting with build-in flash disk.

press release

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

go to "run"
type in msconfig
go to "start up"
here you will find all sorts of crap programs your puter tries to load before you get to use it. probably you will find some you don't need on every boot.

you know what they say: big boots, big gloves; big feet, big hands.

 

[justin]

It only takes my PC desktop about 3 seconds to boot from standby mode. Most of that is the monitor coming out of sleep mode and getting fully illuminated.

 

[MJ]

I run w2000 and not only rem out any programs I don't use at startup but also set any services I don't need to manual start.

 

[TromboneAl]

Until recently I left the system on 24/7.  I did some measurements and found that even in power save, it was using 83 watts.  So by having it off 16 hours per day, I save about 90 dollars per year in electricity usage.

Thanks for the tip, V. It's hard to know which ones I can set to manual, any suggestions.

 

[wabmester]

There are a few sites out there that go through the services one by one with suggestions on startup states, like this one:

http://www.theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm

 

[MJ]

Until recently I left the system on 24/7. I did some measurements and found that even in power save, it was using 83 watts. So by having it off 16 hours per day, I save about 90 dollars per year in electricity usage.

Thanks for the tip, V. It's hard to know which ones I can set to manual, any suggestions.

Here is the services I set to manual based on the research I did and my needs. Hope it helps.

Set the following from automatic to manual
http://is-it-true.org/WindowsTips/Windows2000/AdminTips/...

C-DillaCdaC11BA loaded by various software
Computer Browser
DefWatch Symantec www.neuber.com/taskmanager/process/defwatch.exe.html
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Messenger
Print Spooler I rarely print
Server l
Still Image Service needed for canon image upload which I rarely do.
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper Service
WMDM PMSP Service

MODERATOR EDIT: Link shortened. -BMJ

 

[REWahoo]

Vagabond, I get a 404 message when I click on your "Set the following from automatic to manual" link.

 

[BigMoneyJim]

I shortened that link, but it didn't work in the first place. (Well, the full link is there, it just doesn't stretch the screen now.)

C-Dilla is for TurboTax I think. It's an evil DRM thing, but nevermind.
Messenger is good to turn off as basically nobody needs it.
Print Spooler: if you live alone, fine, if you live with someone else, might was well leave the toilet seat in inappropriate positions, too
Not sure on the rest.

WinXP on a new machine with a fast hard drive boots up very quickly; less than 30 sec for me. I'm surprised. Win2000 I swear must have gratuitous boot delays hard-coded into the kernel.

 

[CyclingInvestor]

You can google each of the .exe's to get a pretty good idea of
what you can take out of the startup list (with msconfig).
My boot time is currently 14 seconds from power button hit
to clicking icons.

 

[Aaron]

I don’t reboot very often, but it generally takes less than a minute.  I always make sure that I don’t have a bunch of extra crap utilities running in the background.
 
I recently found a utility called “Process Explorer” which is basically just a beefed up version of Task Manager, but it shows you what DLL’s are being used and a few other things that can help you track down what exactly is running and it also allows you to kill the process that is running.  I ran it on DW’s computer and found a few surprises – there were a couple of AOL things running and she’s never even used the program, it just shipped with the computer.  I’ve also noticed Real Player is extremely pesky and hard to get rid of. 

Here’s a link to the software:
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html

 

[MJ]

Vagabond, I get a 404 message when I click on your "Set the following from automatic to manual" link.

Haven't used that link for over a year but found it on that site again

Disable unnecessary services

 

[TromboneAl]

Thanks for the tips.

I shut off a bunch of services, and, of course, the computer wouldn't boot. Turned them all on again in safe mode.

It takes 2 minutes even to get the task bar onto the screen, then it loads the monitor rotating stuff, Addsubtract, the macro utilility, virus checker, Hotsync manager, etc. Oh well.

 

[eridanus]

It takes 2 minutes even to get the task bar onto the screen, then it loads the monitor rotating stuff, Addsubtract, the macro utilility, virus checker, Hotsync manager, etc. Oh well.

De-frag your disk?

 

[TromboneAl]

Good idea, but I already did that. Probably time to upgrade.

 

[azanon]

Good idea, but I already did that. Probably time to upgrade.

Its likely more a sign of needing to reinstall windows and format the HDD to clean out all the unwanted TSRs than it is to get a new PC. I checked 5 minutes boot time on mine, but my PC is loaded with TSRs. My virus scanner is a real resource hog, and my network stuff slows the boot down too. But it isnt that my pc is old (3.06G p4, 2 Gigs of ram, Radeon X850 XTPE Video, ATA133 80GB HDD). My HDD is defragged too, its just that i boot a lot of crap all at once to start.

Just think back to how fast it booted when you first bought it/built it. if it was fast back then, then you know its not your hardware =p. PC equipment doesnt get slower with age. it either works fully or it doesnt.

 

[justin]

What Az said. When I did the reinstall/reformat on my laptop last week, I was dumbfounded at how fast it started up when nothing was loading. Maybe 30 seconds. Once you start loading all the drivers, support software, virus/spyware tsr's, etc., it takes much longer. Try reformatting and reinstalling windows before you trash the machine (if you have a few hours to babysit your machine while you reinstall).

 

[TromboneAl]

Right, I agree, but I figure if I'm going to reformat/reinstall then I may as well upgrade to XP. But the whole reason I've never upgraded, is it will take me weeks to reinstall all the millions of apps I have and getting all the settings taken care of.

Imagine, if when you installed an app, it put all of it's stuff in one directory -- all of it's settings, everything it needs. If you want to upgrade your computer, you just copy the directory. The registry is one of the world's stupidest inventions.

I just spent an hour doing registry tweaks and eliminating services, etc. Deleted about 100 unused (maybe) fonts. Saved about 10 seconds on the boot.

 

[Cool Dood]

Psst... it's called Unix