Bootiing Up Windows 7 In Under a Minute!

C

cu2cool

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 20, 2005
Messages
141
Hello, I am looking for what is stated in the title. Basically I want Windows 7 to boot up as fast as possible and be fully functional when I open up Firefox or Explorer. It was sad to see that when I type in my user password at the welcome screen and pressed the power button for another computer with a pentium D processor (w/WinXP), my computer lost the race. When I got into my desktop screen and clicked on Explorer it took almost a minute before the web page showed up. At work, as soon as I see my desktop I can open up explorer (running WinXP) and see the web site in an instance. This may be due to the computer booting from a network? Either way, I'd like to be at least remotely close to that speed. I have Adobe CS4, Nero 9, and Office 2007 installed, which may be causing the problem, but I'd like to keep those programs.

For those of you who have mastered the optimal boot time (with similar programs installed as I have), could you please shed some knowledge as to how I could achieve this boot time?
 
I have about 25 seconds from power switch to desktop ready to rock with specs below.
 
Well you could speed things up by getting a solid state drive. Some people complain that with Superfetch enabled, when you boot up your computer it begins filling your RAM with your most used applications, so that could maybe be an issue (but don't quote me on it).
 
Are you talking about booting into windows or just logging in? Because your post suggests that it takes an inordinately long time from when you typed in your password at the welcome screen.... if that's the case, and with those hardware specs, you have something else going on.

That aside, why are you turning it completely off? Just log out and put it to sleep.
 
I have an SSD installed on my HP Laptop (Intel C2D), it boots up windows in 55 seconds I pressed internet explorer at a minute, and the website shows at a minute and 5 seconds. I guess that's alright, but 64GB is too small to use on my desktop. I'd rather wait till the 128GB SSD prices drop to under $100.

I could probably achieve 14 seconds boot time only if I resume from S3 standby. How do you guys do it? Do you even have all the fancy aero effects on for Win7?
 
I don't think I'd ever switch to a mac as my desktop. Maybe just own a MacBook Pro or Air for show.

Anyways I just timed my startup from the time I hit the power switch.

1.) BIOS loads until about 25 sec. (Win7 Logo loads)
2.) Welcome screen loads at about 50 sec. (I type in my password immediately)
3.) Desktop screen loads at 1 minute 45 sec. ( Wait 5 seconds to click IE icon)
4.) Web Site loads fully at 2 minutes and 5 seconds.

I'd rather just have it take the whole 2 minutes before I see the desktop screen to load. I just hate getting to the desktop screen and then experiencing lag when I try to open something up.
 
Windows 7 on my humble pc.. (e2140 @ 3ghz) reboots quicker than my router, only takes about 35 seconds or so to desktop.
Its set to autologin though, which saves time....

Disable any unused sevices, set to autologin, make sure the startupgroups not full of programs etc..
 
like already asked, why do you shut it down?

I just put mine to sleep, looks and acts like its shut down but has about a 5 second boot time when i hit the mouse lol.
 
My three and a half year old imac 17" Core Duo (T2400) starts up twice as fast as my AMD Phenom II X3 3.8 GHz. Windows is so bad.

One of the things that I've done is go into my MSCONFIG settings and heavily customize what Windows loads and doesn't load. That helps a LOT, but requires quite a bit of digging to see what you do and don't need. YMMV
 
Laptop, with lower specs, boots in about 40sec, all the way to the desktop + usable. And it has tons of crap on it.

Desktop, takes.... about a min just to POST, and another to login all the way. Clean install, nothing much on it. Dunno why, but that's just how it is.
 
My HTPC boots in under a minute, but there isn't much on there as far as extra programs, just my media players and photoshop CS4 (which is only used for batch jobs if I need to use my main rig at the same time).

My main rig takes a long time to post since I have so many drives (the externals take the longest time to process) but after it posts, windows 7 comes up right away, probably about 2 minutes total from cold start to usable Firefox window.
 
Does it matter...really? Boot times have to be one of the most overrated points of your system to worry about. If we were talking about several minutes....yes...something is wrong. But if a PC boots in 60 seconds, compared to one that boots in 40 seconds....does that really matter? How does it run once it boots? Worry about that.

That all being said, minimize the junk you have set to load at boot, and then be done with it. That's the only way you'll really speed up the boot process without upgrading hardware.
 
DeaconFrost said:
Does it matter...really? Boot times have to be one of the most overrated points of your system to worry about. If we were talking about several minutes....yes...something is wrong. But if a PC boots in 60 seconds, compared to one that boots in 40 seconds....does that really matter? How does it run once it boots? Worry about that.

That all being said, minimize the junk you have set to load at boot, and then be done with it. That's the only way you'll really speed up the boot process without upgrading hardware.
Click to expand...

+1

Worrying or comparing boot time to someone elses rig is the e-equivalent of comparing the size of your junk to someone elses while in the health club shower. Sure sometimes you will feel superior sometimes you'll feel inferior but overall short of throwing a bunch of cash at it there aint shit you can do about it.
 
DeaconFrost said:
Does it matter...really? Boot times have to be one of the most overrated points of your system to worry about. If we were talking about several minutes....yes...something is wrong. But if a PC boots in 60 seconds, compared to one that boots in 40 seconds....does that really matter? How does it run once it boots? Worry about that.

That all being said, minimize the junk you have set to load at boot, and then be done with it. That's the only way you'll really speed up the boot process without upgrading hardware.
Click to expand...

For a desktop, I see your point.

For a laptop, the point is lost. That is where the: "oh, just sleep" arguement doesn't work as well.
Hibernate is okay, assuming your HDD doesn't take about 3min to hibernate or resume in the first place (most slims have this tiny, slow hdd.... like mine. If you are on a 'gaming laptop,' then this doesn't apply to you.)
 
Yeah, your best bet is to go with an SSD as others have said. I picked one up for my tx2 this weekend, a Patriot Warp 128GB for $250, not too shabby. Not as big as I'd like but enough for all of my apps and enough data to be useful and having a 20 GB left over. I can keep bigger stuff on a Passport no sweat and keep in in my laptop bag at all times so actually its not bad at all. I would like a bigger and faster one someday but its a MAJOR boost in overall performance.

My boot time with x64 Ultimate with 4GB of and with a TON of start up services like, IIS, SQL Server, Reporting Services, etc, to a usable desktop is about 1:30, not bad at all. But that's not really the big deal. The big deals are the speed in which larger apps load and the amount of stuff I can have running with practically no disk swapping lag. The machine is just SO much more resposive.

I'm hooked now. I'll be using ONLY SSD's for my boot drives in all of my future desktops and laptops. There's just no point other than price in using HDD's anymore.
 
jeremyshaw said:
For a desktop, I see your point.

For a laptop, the point is lost. That is where the: "oh, just sleep" arguement doesn't work as well.
Click to expand...

Why is the "just sleep" point not valid? Why would you be going in and out of hibernate much when sleep is much faster and more reliable anyway?

And yes, what's the big deal about boot times anyway. How ofter do you honestly boot a machine these days. On average I boot a machine no more than twice a week unless I have to for an install.
 
type msconfig in run, click on the boot tab, check the box that says No GUI boot, go to advanced options, check number of processors and open the drop down box and select the number of cores you have. click ok and then ok again, restart and you should see an improvement
 
heatlesssun said:
Why is the "just sleep" point not valid? Why would you be going in and out of hibernate much when sleep is much faster and more reliable anyway?

And yes, what's the big deal about boot times anyway. How ofter do you honestly boot a machine these days. On average I boot a machine no more than twice a week unless I have to for an install.
Click to expand...

About once every two days.

I shut it down, simply because sleep saps off the battery. Argue that it's just a little bit, but it's just what I do before leaving on business trips. I also shut it down, before flight. Hibernate saves power, and I use it if I have too much open work to deal with, and I still need to save power.

At home, it's just sleep all the way.

At LATM (where most of the trips go), then I'll keep it off until I need it. Chargers can be hard to come by, and sleep still sapps off about 3% a day on a laptop (about 5% a day for a netbook, asus n10j, laptop is Dell M1210).
 
phr0m said:
type msconfig in run, click on the boot tab, check the box that says No GUI boot, go to advanced options, check number of processors and open the drop down box and select the number of cores you have. click ok and then ok again, restart and you should see an improvement
Click to expand...

nice tip, mine was already booting really fast but that seems to have made it a touch quicker....or it could just be because im not staring at that pulsating windows logo for 10 seconds and a black screen for 10 seconds seems faster....LOL

what i dont get is why would windows not become multi core aware at some point during or after initial install and enable more than one core by default for boot up? weird.
 
Grab yourself an SSD. Seriously. My desktop boots SO fast now. It's nice that I get the desktop and I can be using firefox a few seconds later with no laggy disk thrashing. Great investment.
 
SSD boots Win7 faster, but not by much. POST takes just as long, 5-10 whatever seconds, then getting to the login screen takes another 15, 20 whatever seconds, then getting to desktop takes some more. Not exactly what I was expecting with people claiming 10 sec or under 30 sec boot times. Haven't seen a boost (or much of one) in game load times either. Not thrilled with this big purchase, but at least everything is silent now.
 
OP, how long does it take to boot up now? If it's anything under two minutes (which it should be already if you're using a modern computer with Windows 7), then what is the problem? Could you really get that much done in the extra 20 seconds?
 
cu2cool said:
I don't think I'd ever switch to a mac as my desktop. Maybe just own a MacBook Pro or Air for show.

Anyways I just timed my startup from the time I hit the power switch.

1.) BIOS loads until about 25 sec. (Win7 Logo loads)
2.) Welcome screen loads at about 50 sec. (I type in my password immediately)
3.) Desktop screen loads at 1 minute 45 sec. ( Wait 5 seconds to click IE icon)
4.) Web Site loads fully at 2 minutes and 5 seconds.

I'd rather just have it take the whole 2 minutes before I see the desktop screen to load. I just hate getting to the desktop screen and then experiencing lag when I try to open something up.
Click to expand...

Don't you guys think there is something wrong if these times are accurate? Look at the rig in his Sig (which I assume is what hes using). Theres no way it should take almost 2 minutes from typing in your password to getting a usable desktop. And another 2 minutes from clicking on I.E. and getting the website up.

Without looking at your PC myself, I can't tell you whats up, but I can tell you that I have a similiar computer to yours, though slightly lesser in some areas. Same video card, processor, and RAM, though I don't have a RAID. Regular HD here.

My Password -> Desktop time is about 5-10 seconds. TOPS. Clicking I.E. (Firefox in my case) and its up within 1-2 seconds (seems instant).

Something isn't right. Did you do a clean install of Windows 7, or an upgrade from Vista? Do you have any wierd software loading up at bootup? What kind of antivirus, etc? Check your processor/heat sink for dust. A large amount of caked-on dust can significantly affect a computer's performance.

Sleep mode and the other suggestions here are good, but in my opinion, the huge timing delays here indicate an overall problem with his PC, something that should be resolved.
 
In the past, a long delay from password entry to desktop is a sign of a network issue. On my laptop that uses a domain account, I see a much longer delay from password entry to desktop when I'm not connected to the domain. If the laptop is on the domain, that process takes only a few seconds. My tower that sits on the domain at all times doesn't have this issue, and several home systems with no domain accounts don't have this issue either.
 
jeremyshaw said:
About once every two days.

I shut it down, simply because sleep saps off the battery. Argue that it's just a little bit, but it's just what I do before leaving on business trips. I also shut it down, before flight. Hibernate saves power, and I use it if I have too much open work to deal with, and I still need to save power.

At home, it's just sleep all the way.

At LATM (where most of the trips go), then I'll keep it off until I need it. Chargers can be hard to come by, and sleep still sapps off about 3% a day on a laptop (about 5% a day for a netbook, asus n10j, laptop is Dell M1210).
Click to expand...

I have an HP Compaq 6710b laptop with a Core2Duo proccessor and 4GB RAM and all that goodness and sleep mode barely touches the battery. You might want to check and see if your laptop has been waking up periodically for whatever reason, then going back to sleep due to idle time.

I'm having that trouble with my HTPC where it constantly wakes up on its own, only to go back to sleep because my power option told it to sleep after 30 minutes of idling.
 
Azhar said:
I have an HP Compaq 6710b laptop with a Core2Duo proccessor and 4GB RAM and all that goodness and sleep mode barely touches the battery. You might want to check and see if your laptop has been waking up periodically for whatever reason, then going back to sleep due to idle time.

I'm having that trouble with my HTPC where it constantly wakes up on its own, only to go back to sleep because my power option told it to sleep after 30 minutes of idling.
Click to expand...

Your HTPC prolly wakes automatically because WMC is updating the tv guide. Set it to manual update in the options.

Thanks for all the input everyone. I am familiar with msconfig to stop some services at boot, and forgot to try it. Another point to clear out about my timings. Those times were points out of 2 minutes total. Not the amount of time it takes for each step.

Yes, my system runs very nice once everything is done loading up. Programs will open up in 1-2 seconds, etc. It's just that when I first boot, if all the programs aren't done loading it lags like this when I try to open up a program. I'm an impatient person, and when I see my desktop, I want it to be ready to go.

I guess boot time isn't really a major factor, I just wish there was a way to optimize the way it loads so that all the start programs are finished loading by the time I see my desktop. I know that there is a Boot Optimizer for WinXP. Hopefully they come out with something like that for Win7, so I can get this to work the way I want.

Also, I try to turn off my computer everyday now to be more eco-friendly/save electricity, so I don't use sleep as an option anymore.

EDIT**

Adjusted msconfig and was able to shave off about 30 seconds from boot time.

1.) Post finished at 25 sec.
2.) Welcome screen and password entered at 53 sec.
3.) Desktop loads at 1 min. 5 sec.
4.) Clicked on IE at 1 min. 19 sec.
5.) MSN.com finishes load at 1 min. 36 sec.

I guess I can't really compare my internet connection at home (Verizon DSL 3Mb/s) to the T1 connection at work. As for the boot/programs startup time I guess there's not much else to do now.

Also, I have a 64GB SSD in my HP laptop. Honestly, compared to the stock 250GB (5400rpm) hard drive it came with, there isn't that much of a noticeable difference in performance/boot time. Maybe starting a program while already in Windows is a bit faster. Also for those of you using a SSD for main rig, do the slow write speeds of SSD's bug you at all?
 
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Mine boots in like..30 seconds. I think the Hard Drive is what decreases boot time, look into a Velociraptor or a WD Caviar black.
 
I haven't timed my home computer, which is ancient by [H]'s standards, but I haven't ever felt it was slow booting. And going from booting WinXP on a 10k RPM HDD to Win7 on a 7200RPM, I still think that 7 is faster than XP.
My recommendations would be like others: find out what programs are starting at boot and limit those to what you want/need. My parents are the absolute worst at this with a ridiculous number of programs starting at boot. Then they complain because everything takes ages (it doesn't help that they refuse to upgrade from a Pentium 3 proc).
Some ways to help shave off the boot time would include setting your antivirus software to do its scanning after everything else has finished. And disable Apple's itunes crap (there are two or three different background processes that start up at boot). Any programs that automatically check for software updates get killed by me. I'm fine with checking for updates whenever I update the OS. I don't need some app phoning home every time the computer boots.
 
Mine hangs for about a minute after typing in my password. It started when I forced bootcamp to install on this PC so that the chameleon bootloader works with my raid setup. (not a real mac) I assume something about that causes it to hang. Before that I never had any speed issues.
 
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