How to Speed Up the Startup Process

Although startup is a complex process and the time required varies from computer to computer, you can often reduce the startup time. To optimize settings that might improve startup time, follow these steps:

1. In the computer's BIOS settings, set the computer to boot first from the Windows boot drive. If you need to boot from removable media in the future, you will first need to change this setting.
2. In the computer's BIOS settings, enable Fast Boot, if available, to disable time-consuming and often unnecessary hardware checks.
3. If you have more than one boot menu item, reduce the boot menu time-out value using the Boot tab of the Msconfig tool. Alternatively, you can use BCDEdit to reduce the time-out value, as described in the section titled "How to Change the Boot Menu Time-Out" earlier in this tutorial.
4. Clear disk space if free disk space is below 15 percent and then defragment the hard disk. Although defragmentation happens automatically by default, defragmentation is less effective if free disk space is low.
5. Disable unnecessary hardware using Windows Device Manager.
6. Use Windows ReadyBoost to cache some files used in the startup process to a USB flash drive.
7. Remove unnecessary startup applications.
8. For services (other than those included with Windows) that need to start automatically but do not need to start immediately, use the Services console to change the startup type to Automatic (Delayed Start). If services are set to start automatically but are not required, change the startup type to Manual.

For detailed startup performance troubleshooting, examine the Applications And Services Logs\Microsoft\Windows\Diagnostics-Performance\Operational Event Log. Events with IDs from 100 to 199 provide startup performance detail in the event of long startup times. In particular, event ID 100 indicates the startup time in milliseconds. Other events identify applications or services that are causing a startup performance degradation.