[NA] WinXP taking looong time to boot -- Any helper programs recommended?

[AggieMike88]

Anyone have a good recomendation on a safe and easy to use software to help improve boot times on a WinXP machine?

Early in this machine's life, it was less than 30-seconds to go from a cold start to a complete load up. But due to so much additions, deletions of various softwares and other changes, it's taking about 3-4 minutes.

 

[mikea]

Run MSCONFIG -->Startup and deselect anything you don't recognize as being vital.

 

[rpadula]

Mac OS X?

 

[weilke]

When I had the same problem, I found that an antivirus software I had installed for a while never completely uninstalled when I changed vendors. The user interface etc. all disappeared and it was not visible in the registry, some digging with msconfig unearthed that the actual 'engine' part continued starting itself causing all kinds of mischief.

 

[Ghery]

Save all your files somewhere else, find the installation DVDs for all your software and reload the OS. This is why my son creates two partitions on the hard drive when he builds a new machine. One for the OS and one for everything else. As time goes on the OS gets loaded up with updates and other crud and slows down. A re-load seems to be the best solution.

Now, at work I have no such luck. A new machine boots quickly and then IT loads their bloatware. Instant pig with no way to fix it. Oh well...

 

[AggieMike88]

Mac OS X?

Love to... but not feasible at this time.

 

[AggieMike88]

Run MSCONFIG -->Startup and deselect anything you don't recognize as being vital.

When I had the same problem, I found that an antivirus software I had installed for a while never completely uninstalled when I changed vendors. The user interface etc. all disappeared and it was not visible in the registry, some digging with msconfig unearthed that the actual 'engine' part continued starting itself causing all kinds of mischief.

Good ideas... While I only used AVG Free before switching to MS Security Essentials, there could still be a remnant somewhere...

and likely there is some other bloatware items that are long gone but have some ghosts.



Worth looking a the registry at all?

 

[kgruber]

Good ideas... While I only used AVG Free before switching to MS Security Essentials, there could still be a remnant somewhere...

and likely there is some other bloatware items that are long gone but have some ghosts.



Worth looking a the registry at all?

Run CCleaner, their registry cleaner, and their start up cleaner.

Remove most of the start up stuff.

 

[denverpilot]

Mac OS X?

Just for the record... OSX startup can be god-awful slow too, under the right conditions. OS's are not the solution to screwed up startup-configs.