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| Maximize PC Performance | |
| July 2001• Vol.9 Issue 7 Page(s) 85-87 in print issue | |
Startup Process Speed Up Your PC’s Go Time With These Pointers |
Jump to first occurrence of:
[STARTUP]
[PROCESS]
 It’s one thing to set aside half an
hour every morning to perhaps shower, eat breakfast, and maybe even go for
a run, but if you are doing these things to kill time as you wait for your
computer to get up and running, it’s time to do some work on your startup
process. From the time you first push the power button to the moment the final icon winks into view on your screen, your computer performs a number of tasks: Applications load in the background; virus utilities scan your files; and hardware, Registry, and other files are polled and checked, to name just a few. The startup process is quite a bit more detailed that you might think, but it shouldn’t last so long that you fall asleep waiting for it to finish. You can probably trim a fair amount of fat out of your startup process to greatly speed it up. Try some of the following tips to make your “morning routine” a bit less cumbersome.  Clean Out The
StartUp Folder. One of the biggest time drains at startup is
the loading of stray bits of applications that like to hang out in the
background, waiting to be used. Applications such as Microsoft Office and
Real Networks’ RealPlayer are notorious for preloading little pieces of
themselves so that when you first use them, they will load all the faster.
Unfortunately, they add to startup time and, many feel, needlessly cut
into your total available operating memory. You can find and get rid of
the most obvious of these items in the StartUp folder.To access the StartUp folder, click Start and select Programs. Right-click the StartUp folder and select Open from the pop-up menu. Right-click anything in this folder that you don’t want your computer to load or don’t really use that often and select Delete from the pop-up menu. Don’t worry about deleting something you may need later; these are all shortcuts, not the actual programs. If you decide a few days down the road that you miss a particular program or piece of a program that had been loading at startup, find it in the Recycle Bin on your Desktop, right-click it, and select Restore from the pop-up menu to put it back in the StartUp folder. Alternately, you can drag any shortcuts you want to remove from the StartUp folder to a special folder that you create. Then if you want to return a shortcut to the StartUp folder, you can easily drag it from the folder you created to its original location in the startup lineup. Or instead of placing the shortcuts in a different folder, you can place them in the Quick Launch section of the Taskbar. This way they are close at hand, but they don’t needlessly take up valuable resources. Another way to keep your StartUp folder free of time-consuming clutter is to keep an eye on the installation of any new software. You can usually short-circuit software’s attempts to add to the StartUp folder at this point. After you’ve made the changes you want to the StartUp folder, reboot your computer to make the changes take effect.
Use The System
Configuration Utility. Unfortunately, you won’t find all the
applications and bits of programs that load at startup in the StartUp
folder. The StartUp folder contains some of the most obvious startup
items, but it is not the only source for such items; rather, it’s usually
just the tip of the iceberg. You can find many more startup bits, pieces,
and programs using the System Configuration Utility.To open the System Configuration Utility dialog box, click Start and select Run. Type msconfig in the text field and click OK. In the System Configuration Utility dialog box, click the Startup tab. Everything that is checked here loads at startup. If you don’t want something to load, uncheck it. Sounds simple, but how do you know which items you need and which you can ditch? The list of items that can appear here is long and will vary according to your system and installed software. You can find a fairly large list of possible items that will help you identify things in this dialog box at http://www2.whidbey.com/djdenham/Uncheck.htm. A search for a file name on a search engine such as Google may also help. You can also try to track the individual items down on your hard drive and get whatever information you can either based on its location or by right-clicking it and selecting Properties from the pop-up menu. The following might also help: •You can generally get rid of such things as tips or the TaskMonitor, unless you have use for them. •You can uncheck such things as Norton CrashGuard, but this will leave you more vulnerable to possible data loss in the event of a system crash. •FastFind? Uncheck it. This component of earlier versions of Microsoft Office is considered by most tech experts to be not worth the effort to keep it installed. •Leave such things as SystemTray and ScanRegistry (which makes backups of your system Registry, something you shouldn’t be without) in play. The General tab in the System Configuration Utility dialog box offers one other configuration option that can help you save startup time. •In Windows 9x, click the Selective Startup radio box and uncheck the Process Config.sys File and Process Autoexec.bat File checkboxes. These load DOS drivers and other environmental variables and generally aren’t necessary. •In Windows Me, click the Selective Startup radio button and uncheck the Load Environmental Variables checkbox. When you’ve finished making changes in the System Configuration Utility dialog box, click Apply, then OK. If you made any changes, you should be prompted to restart, which you should do. If you notice your computer seems to be a little “off” or performing poorly, undo what you did and reboot, then try redoing them one at a time and rebooting to see if you can hone in on the problem area.
Quit Checking For
Floppy Diskette Drives. Every time you start your computer, the
system checks to see if there are any new floppy diskette drives it should
know about. This has a certain usefulness for portable computers but is
probably something you don’t need on a desktop system. Removing the
instruction that causes your system to check for floppy drives on startup
will not only make your computer boot up faster, but it will also save on
floppy drive wear and tear.1.Right-click the My Computer icon on your Desktop and select Properties from the pop-up menu. 2.Click the Performance tab, then the File System button. 3.Under the Floppy Disk tab, uncheck the Search For New Floppy Disk Drives Each Time Your Computer Starts checkbox. Disabling this feature will not keep you from booting your computer from a rescue floppy disk. You can still do this as usual by placing the rescue disk in the floppy drive and simply starting the computer. Disable The Auto
Insert Feature. You may find the auto insert feature (which
lets audio and data CDs instantly launch when you place them in the CD-ROM
drive) very handy. You might find it an annoyance. Either way, you can
save a couple of ticks of startup time by disabling
it.1.Right-click the My Computer icon on your Desktop and select Properties from the pop-up menu. 2.Click the Device Manager tab. 3.Double-click the CD-ROM icon from the list and then double-click the icon for your CD-ROM drive (or the one you which you want to disable auto insert, if you have more than one installed on your system). 4.Select the Settings tab, then uncheck the Auto Insert Notification checkbox and click OK. Clean Up
The Registry. You probably have at least a passing familiarity
with the Registry. This Windows area is where configuration values,
settings, and other information for all your applications reside. When you
install an application, information in the form of keys is written to the
Registry, and when you remove the application from your system, the
uninstaller program (or third-party uninstall solution) will remove this
data from the Registry. Well, that’s what is supposed to happen.In reality, it doesn’t always work that way. Stray remnants of data can and do build up, causing the Registry to grow over time. Because the Registry loads at startup and is stored in RAM, the larger the Registry is, the slower it will load and the more RAM it will consume. Finding an easy way to remove entries that are obsolete or incorrect or just point to a nonexistent application can shrink the Registry and, as a result, your startup time. A number of different software solutions can help you in this situation. Programs such as Microsoft’s RegClean (http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q147/7/69.asp), Easy Desk Software’s Perfect Companion (http://www.easydesksoftware.com/index.htm), and Symantec’s Norton Utilities (http://www.symantec.com/nu) let you check your Registry against programs on your computer and clean out unnecessary information. A couple of things to keep in mind before using these solutions: 1.Make sure you back up a copy of the registry before changing it. Changing the wrong key in the Registry can lead to big problems, particularly if you don’t have a copy to fall back on. 2.Restart to make all changes take effect.
Adjust The Root
Directory. Another area you might consider cleaning to speed up
your startup process is the root directory (if you boot to your C: drive,
it will be the C: directory). A lot of extra files can collect here, and
getting rid of any garbage that’s collected in this folder can only help
both your boot-up and your overall system performance. There are some
things to keep in mind before messing around in this folder,
though.1.What you can delete here will vary greatly from system to system and will vary depending on what you’ve installed in the past. 2.Deleting anything here can be dangerous. A lot of files here, if removed, will keep you from booting your system at all, which is why the next point is so important. 3.Back up any file before deleting it and make sure you have a bootable system or rescue floppy diskette. Tune The
Msdos.sys File. The primary job of the Msdos.sys file is to
serve as a sort of startup pointer. Your system will look to this text
file to find the Registry, boot drive, startup files, and more. You can
manipulate several of the startup options in this file with a text editor,
letting you do such things as speed up the startup system and remove the
initial startup logo.1. First, you’ll have to find the file. Msdos.sys is a “hidden” file, so if your system isn’t set to show it, you won’t be able to see Msdos.sys. a. You can set your computer to view hidden files by clicking Start and selecting Settings, Folder Options. b. Select the View tab and make sure the Show Hidden Files And Folders (or Show All Files, depending on your system) radio button is selected. c. Click Apply, then click OK. 2. Now that you can see the Msdos.sys file, double-click the My Computer icon on your Desktop and open your boot drive (probably C:). The Msdos.sys file should be in this folder. 3. Right-click the File and select Properties, then uncheck the Read-only and Hidden checkboxes in the Attributes section. 4. Make a backup copy of the file. Then open Msdos.sys in a text editor such as Notepad (Start, Programs, Accessories, Notepad). 5. You can manipulate a number of different settings here, but the one that will most directly effect your boot time is the Bootdelay line. This line sets the time interval that Windows will wait after displaying the Starting Windows screen to let you get into the Boot Menu Screen. a. Change the setting to zero (the default is two). In the future, this just means that, if you have to hold down a key such as F8 to get into the Boot Menu Screen, you’ll now have to be pretty quick to do it. Every other startup you’ll be rewarded with a boot time that’s two seconds quicker. b. Save Msdos.sys. c. Reboot for the changes to take effect. Rein In Virus Scans.
Does your antivirus software support real-time scanning? This
feature lets you keep a constant eye on your entire system, specific
processes or folders, or whatever you’ve set it up to watch. It’s a handy
feature, but it can put a considerable hit on your system performance in
general and can significantly increase your boot time (depending on how
you’ve set it up). You may find that setting up your antivirus software to
scan your system one or more times a day at specific times will give you
the protection you need, while assuring that your system and boot times
are not unduly taxed.You’ll need to shut down real-time scanning from within your antivirus software. (You can’t just uncheck the program in the Startup tab of the System Configuration Utility dialog box.) How you perform this operation will vary from program to program, but the following will walk you through the process for Norton AntiVirus 2000.
2. Click Options from the Menu bar. 3. Select Auto-Protect from the list along the left side and uncheck the Start Auto-Protect When Windows Starts Up checkbox. 4. Click OK. To shut down Auto-Protect for the current session, click the Disable button under System Status. 5. Remember to set up scheduled scan times, because your system is now wide open and unprotected. Other Possibilities.
In addition to the above tips, here are a couple of other
possible areas you can manipulate to speed up your startup
time.Tweak your BIOS. Depending on your system (and you; this is not for the faint of heart), you may be able to trim a little off your boot time by manipulating some features in the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System). These can include options for keeping your system from counting its memory when it starts up, enabling “quick start” or “quick boot” options, and more. See BIOS for tips about tweaking the BIOS. Get a faster processor. You can only tweak so much. While certainly not the inexpensive way to go, one sure way to speed up your startup is to upgrade to a faster processor. Less Waiting, More
Computing. Employ some of these tips, and you’ll find yourself
spending less time waiting and more time computing. You may also find that
your system itself runs noticeably faster and smoother. by Rich Gray
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