Optimized Defrag for Faster Startup

When you start your computer, a lot of files are read from disk. The files accessed during boot are called startup files. Typically the disk speed is the determining factor in how fast your computer starts. Of course other computer resources also contribute as files read from the hard disk are placed in memory and the file contents needs to be processed.

But apart from the hard disk speed, there is another factor that contributes to the startup time. That is the way the files are placed on the hard drive. If they are sequenced properly, they will be read faster than if they are all over the disk.

For normal files we use a defrag program to optimize disk utilization. Unknown to a lot of people is the fact that the file optimization through defragmentation can also be applied to the startup files. This can optimize the startup speed of Windows, and in effect the startup speed of a computer.

By default, the standard Windows defrag application does not defragment the startup files. Considering the possible positive impact, it is something you might want to consider. Follow these steps to turn on defragmentation of startup files:

1. From the Windows Start menu, select Run. In the Run box, type regedit and click OK.
2. In the Registry Editor, locate the following key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\ BootOptimizeFunction
3. Right-click the Enable entry, and click Modify. Enter a Y as the Value data, and click OK.
4. Close the Registry Editor. Select Exit from the File menu.

The settings are active after you reboot the computer. You can wait for a scheduled defrag or execute the disk defrag manually. After that the startup files have been optimized and the computer startup should be faster.

Note: If you do not like to change the registry, you can execute a one-time manual boot optimization defrag. In the Run command, type regedit C: -B and click OK. This will execute the defrag application for disk C: and optimize the startup files. Replace C: by another drive if the C-drive is not you boot disk.