Quicker Start up
I would like to get faster start up
have vista and broad band cable,
believe have to remove some of the progams
Asked by: alan cockerton
Learning Zone
An extensive resource of easy-to-use technology guides
An extensive resource of easy-to-use technology guides
August 17th, 2009 at 7:17 am
Hi Alan,
Getting a PC to start up more quickly is something of a black art, as so many factors can influence it.
I’ll assume that as you’re running Vista, your PC is fairly modern, with a fast processor and plenty of RAM. I regard 2GB as the minimum for Vista to run well. Memory is cheap nowadays, so if you’ve got less, try upgrading it.
One factor when using broadband is the need to connect to the ISP before you can use the Internet. If you install a router, that will maintain the connection and there will be no delay once the PC itself is ready.
Let’s turn to the PC’s own start-up process. As you surmise, lots of programs start running which don’t really need to be there. You can often see their icons in the System Tray, the section of the Taskbar at bottom right, next to the clock. Many applications which you have installed will set themselves up to run as “services” so that they will respond instantly when needed. Digital camera software is a typical example. Others include Adobe Reader, Skype and MS Office – the list is long. You can often right-click on the icon and change the preferences so that it doesn’t run in the System Tray. The program is still available for you to use; it just needs to be started.
There are a number of excellent free applications to display all the programs running on a PC. Some are very complex and not intended for the average user, such as Process Explorer and Process Monitor, both by Sysinternals.
Basic tools built into Windows can assist you in finding out what’s starting up. Click Start, then Programs and look in Startup. The programs listed here will start automatically when Windows starts up. If they are not needed, delete them from the Startup folder.
There’s also MSConfig. Click Start, Run and type MSCONFIG. This will show you what Windows is set to run at start-up.
Another tool is Task Manager. Press Ctrl-Alt-Del and Task Manager is one of the options. That will tell you what is currently running on your PC.
Hope that has helped.
August 26th, 2009 at 8:03 am
Another way to speed up the startup time of your PC is not to shut it down completely when you have finished using it, but to put it into either Standby or Hibernation. Both of these states result in a quicker startup when you next want to use the PC and retain what you were working on at the time, such as editing a document.
Standby shuts down the display, the hard disk and the cooling fan(s), leaving the computer in a low-power mode, often with the power light flashing. It does still use electricity and shouldn’t be used if the PC will be unplugged or left on battery power for an extended period. Startup from standby mode is almost instantaneous.
Hibernation uses no power at all. It saves the contents of the PC’s memory to a reserved area of the hard disk and then shuts down the PC completely. Startup from hibernation is not instant, but is generally much faster than a full startup (e.g. 1 minute instead of 5 minutes) and also preserves whatever you were working on at the time.
In XP, you have to enable Hibernation via Control Panel – Power Options – Hibernate – Enable Hibernation. To put the PC into hibernation, click Start – Turn Off Computer – press the shift key – click Hibernate.
In Vista, click the Start button, select Control Panel and then Power Options. Under “Choose what the power button does”, change it to Hibernate. Then pressing the power button will hibernate the PC.