Improve start-up and shutdown times

Improve start-up and shutdown times

Tired of twiddling your thumbs or taking a coffee break while XP boots up or shuts down? These tweaks and hacks will speed up both for you.

1. Speed boot-up with boot defragments

The simplest way to speed boot-up is to do a boot defragment so that all the boot files are next to one another on your hard disk. By default, XP performs a boot defragment, but there's a chance that it's been turned off. Here's how to make sure it's turned on.

1. Open the Registry Editor by typing regedit at a command prompt or the Run box.
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction.
3. Change the Enable string value to Y if it is not already set to Y.
4. Exit the Registry and reboot.

The next time you reboot, you'll do a boot defragment.

2.Tweak your BIOS for faster start-ups

Each time you turn on your PC, it performs a set of BIOS start-up procedures before XP loads. Speed up those start-up procedures, and you'll speed up boot times.You change the start-up procedures by changing the BIOS settings with your system's built-in setup utility. How you run this utility varies from PC to PC, but you typically get to it by pressing the Delete, F1 or F10 keys during start-up. A menu of choices then appears. Here are the settings to tweak for faster start-ups:

3.Quick Power On Self Test (POST): With this option, your system runs an abbreviated POST rather than the normal, lengthy one. Turn it on.

4.Boot Up Floppy Seek: When was the last time you used a floppy, much less booted from it? If you're like most of the world, the answer is never. Disable this option. When it's enabled, your system spends a few extra seconds looking for your floppy drive.

Boot Delay: Some PCs let you delay booting after you turn on your PC so that your hard drive gets a chance to start spinning before boot-up. It's unlikely you need this boot delay, so turn it off. If you run into problems, however, you can turn it back on.

5.How not to speed up booting

There's a tip about speeding up XP boot times that's been circulating on the Web for years -- follow it and you'll most likely slow down your PC, not speed it up. The tip recommends that you delete all the files in your C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch directory on a regular basis. But in fact, doing that will lead to a more sluggish PC.

The reason? Windows uses C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch make your applications launch more quickly.Windows XP analyzes the files you use during start-up and the applications you launch, and it creates an index to their locations. Using the index, XP launches files and applications faster.

By emptying the directory, you are most likely slowing down how quickly those applications launch. And in my tests, I've found that after emptying the directory, it takes my PC a few seconds longer to get to my desktop after boot-up.

6.Disconnect dead network connections

Windows XP has a very useful feature that lets you map a network drive to your local PC. So, for example, if there's a drive on another PC on your network or on a network server that you frequently browse to, you can make it look to XP as if it's a local disk, such as the F: drive. That way, you can quickly get to the network drive instead of having to navigate through a complex maze of paths.

That's the good news. Here's the bad news: If any of those network drives is no longer alive, it can slow down your system. Every time you start XP, it tries to connect to all the network drives you've mapped. If the remote drive doesn't respond, XP waits to start and will try to connect again until it gives up.

In addition, when you use some programs, they'll try to make the connection as well, further slowing your system. The result? When you try to open a file on your local PC, you may have to wait several seconds.

Disconnecting dead network drives is simple. Right-click My Computer and choose Disconnect Network Drive. You'll see a screen like one pictured nearby, which lists all your network drives. Select any drives you want to disconnect, then click OK. Things should now speed up.

7.Remove extraneous start-up programs

You've most likely got many programs that load into your system on start-up. These programs do worse things than just slowing down start-up -- they can bog down your PC by constantly taking up RAM and CPU power. Unfortunately, in XP, there's no single place to go to find all those start-up programs and decide which ones to keep and which to kill.

That's where Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel applet comes in. It shows you all the programs and services that load on start-up, then lets you kill any you don't want to keep.

The program is multi tabbed, with one tab for every place where a program or service may be launched on start-up. Click each tab and examine the listings. Right-click any program you don't want to run, and select Disable so that it no longer runs.

If you're not sure what a particular program does and whether you need it, do a Google search on the program name or file name for more information. The process is laborious, to be sure, but what you gain in start-up speed is well worth your efforts.

8.Don't clear the paging file on shutdown

If shutting down XP takes too long, you can tell XP not to clear your paging file when it shuts down. The paging file stores temporary files and data, but when your system shuts down, that information stays in the file.

Some people want the paging file cleared at shutdown because sensitive information such as unencrypted passwords sometimes ends up there. But if extreme security isn't a high priority, you can save yourself some time by not clearing it. (If you're on a corporate machine, check with IT before taking this step.)

9.To shut down XP without clearing your paging file:

1. Open the Registry Editor by typing regedit at a command prompt or the Run box.
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management.
3. Look for the value ClearPageFileAtShutdown, and change it to 0.
4. Exit the Registry and reboot.

From now on, your paging file won't be cleared, and shutdowns should be faster.

10.Make XP more secure

Windows XP's security tools are in serious need of upgrade. A prime example is the XP firewall. It has one very serious deficiency -- it doesn't block potentially dangerous outbound connections.

The solution: Get a free firewall that does that and more. Several are worth trying, but my favorite is Comodo Firewall Pro. It's the top free firewall rated by the independent Matousec testing site. In addition to offering inbound and outbound protection, it includes a Host Prevention System to stop malware from being installed in the first place.

XP doesn't include antivirus protection, so you'll of course need some kind of antivirus. Rather than using a bloated, big-name security suite stuffed with a firewall, backup software, identity protection and other modules, your better bet is to get an independent, lightweight antivirus program.

Two of the best are Avast Antivirus Home Edition and AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition. In addition to viruses, AVG protects against spyware, and Avast includes protection from spyware and rootkits -- but that extra protection won't weigh down your PC.

Both programs are free for home and non-commercial use, keep you safe, and take up little RAM and few system resources. What more do you need?

11.Modernize XP's look and feel

Face it, you may like XP, but it's looking very old and dated these days. It's in some very serious need of eye candy.

A great way to dress it up is with the ObjectDock from Stardock. It gives XP a Mac-like look with an animated dock that mimics the one in Mac OS X.

With it, you dock your favorite applications and folders at the bottom or side of the screen. It features a slick look, smooth animations, and much more visual appeal than XP.

The clunky old method of using Alt-Tab to switch between applications in XP could use some help. Yes, it will switch you -- but that's the extent of it.

You can power up Alt-Tab with TaskSwitchXP from NTWind Software. Use it, and whenever you press Alt-Tab, you'll be able to see previews of all your open windows. From here you can close and minimize applications and their groups as well.

Finally, give your XP desktop a useful sidebar like Vista's, with Google's Desktop Sidebar. It's packed with gadgets, such as a weather tracker, stock checker, and news reader, and there are many other free gadgets you can download for it as well. Yahoo Widgets similarly offers you a sidebar and plenty of free widgets.