Slashdot Mirror
Why Do Computers Take So Long to Boot Up?
An anonymous reader writes "Computers take too long to boot up, and it doesn't make sense to me. Mine takes around 30 seconds; it is double or triple that for some of my friends' computers that I have used. Why can't a computer turn on and off in an instant just like a TV? 99% of boots, my computer is doing the exact same thing. Then I get to Windows XP with maybe 50 to 75 megs of stuff in memory. My computer should be smart enough to just load that junk into memory and go with it. You could put this data right at the very start of the hard drive. Whenever you do something with the computer that actually changes what happens during boot, it could go through the real booting process and save the results. Doing this would also give you instant restarts. You just hit your restart button, the computer reloads the memory image, and you can be working again. Or am I wrong? Why haven't companies made it a priority to have 'instant on' desktops and laptops?"
You're whining about 30 seconds? My god, get a life.
When I get up in the morning I go into my office and power up everything then hit the bathroom, start the coffee, walk the dogs then back in to grab a cup of now brewed coffee on my way to my desk.
By then everything is not only booted up but it's warmed up and happy.
You Generation M (microwave oven) kids need to quit demanding everything on demand.
"I want it and I want it NOW!"
This is a question based on lack of research. There are many things you can do.
1. Dump c:\windows\prefetch, and lock it where it can't read/write.
2. Use winlite to strip out crap like WMP, IE, ActiveX, and everything else you don't use, NO OS shouldn't require these things to function.
3. Use a winlogon crack. Believe it or not this makes a speed difference on bootup.
4. Use XP pro not home, so u can do some of the stuff mentioned above.
5. use toolbarcop, and remove everything in there.
6. Don't use Norton, or Mcafee. They bloat the system down like there WAS a virus on it. Norton is considered a virus by my repair shop, and is removed upon exiting the building.
7. Turn off system restore, and dump c:\windows\system32\dllcache
8. Don't use cheapo HP printers and install their garbageware.
9. The result? My build of XP. It will be on piratebay in a few days. It is 450mb. Upon install it is 900mb.
10. Avoid venders like HP, compaq, and Dell that load spyware on the machine out of the factory. Don't use factory disks. FTF (Format the Fucker) and load XP from scratch with a Winlite modd'd copy, and load the drivers. Then load your software.
11. Avoid walmart PCs. Especially the compaqs that take 20 minutes to boot up, and are substandard to a 10 year old machine. Then charge $80 an hour to work on them. The cheaper they are. The more i charge.
12 WHEN YOU ARE DONE. Ghost it to DVD or CD. Then boot from that CD/DVD, and re-ghost (I use ghost 7 corporate) the hard drive from the CD / DVD. This makes a huge difference because it aligns the data on the HD correctly. Try it, and you will see.
My largest argument is WHY shoould anyone have to do all the crap I mentioned above to make Windows run decent? My 7 year old mac takes 10 seconds to boot from a clean install of Tiger.
When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. - Jefferson
My computer boots to Windows XP's CTRL-ALT-DEL screen, from a powered-down state, in 8 seconds.
;)
Maybe upgrading from a PII is the answer to your problems?