How to Speed Up PC Startup

Speed up PC startup and chop minutes off of your computer boot time. Computer speed is affected by a lot of things. Common culprits for slow computer launch are the presence of unnecessary or unused programs, a fragmented hard drive, presence of malware, bloated registry and virus infection. Implementing certain PC speedup tricks can help speed up PC startup en route to optimized PC performance.

Speed Up PC Startup Tips

Prior to undertaking any computer system changes, do some basic housekeeping. Make sure that the basic PC maintenance chores are taken care of. See to it that you know your way back to where you started – in case certain tweaks don’t work out. The stuff that need to be done on a regular basis include: running antivirus and anti-spyware programs, emptying the Recycle Bin and the temp files, backing up the system and running disk fragmenter and chkdsk.

The configuration and default settings for your PC aren’t necessarily set at their most efficient, in terms of your particular PC usage. While Windows XP loads fairly quickly, there are still some ways to hurry up the process a bit more. There are a number of PC speedup tricks to help speed up PC startup and improve PC operation.

• Clear Recent Documents History in Windows XP. The Windows XP Start menu includes the entry “My Recent Documents, ” which lists all of the recent docs that you’ve opened or utilized. After a while, this list grows so long that it begins to slow down the boot-up process.

Clearing the list can be done several ways. The list consists of shortcuts stored in the \Documents and Settings\{User}\Recent\ folder. It’s possible to delete things there. Another option would be to use the Start menu Properties dialog box. Right-click on the Start menu and select Properties from the context menu. Hit the Customize button followed by the Advanced tab found at the top of the new window that opens. A dialog box will appear. From here, click on Clear List and then hit Ok twice to enable removal of the Recent Document History entries. If you totally don’t want to bother with the history, uncheck the box next to “List my most recently opened documents” and then hit Ok.

• Do some network tweaks. Network cards can drag down startup time significantly since they often spend a lot of time obtaining network addresses. If you’ve got plenty of network protocols, loading them could also take ages. For people who have home networks and use automatic IP assignments, they might be able to speed up PC startup by assigning permanent IPs to the PCs on their network. Check the instructions for the router.

If you use DSL and connect via PPPOE directly to one modem, assigning a permanent IP to your specific network card will help improve computer speed. Not doing so would mean considerable delays in startup as the network card has the added task of hunting for an address whenever booting. Consult your ISP for specific instructions.

If You have multiple network interfaces on your PC, disable the ones that you do not use. If you have a onboard ethernet connection as well as a wireless interface, disable the interface that you do not use. This will speed up the computer startup.

• Keep everything updated. The booting process includes launching and initializing hardware. Keep drivers for the peripherals as well as other PC hardware current. You might need to check the manufacturers’ sites regularly for this. For those using older PC equipment, make sure you’re using drivers that are written or designed for the particular operating system you’ve got.

• Consider disabling rarely utilized peripherals or other hardware services to speed up PC startup. Examples of these are IR and game ports. Disabling these devices doesn’t remove them. You can re-enable them at a later date if so desired. Go to the Device Manager to make the necessary changes.

There are many more ways to speed up PC startup without having to tear the system apart. The tips mentioned here can help improve computer speed and make sluggish PCs act like they used to when they were first delivered. For additional PC speedup tweaks, do try our recommended tools.