I want to speed up my startup

JOSHSKORN · 07 Nov 2010

I've been toying with the idea of overclocking but I don't know where to go. It's weird, it seems like when I upgraded my from Corsair XMS 2GB to Kingston ValueRAM 4GB, that my actual startup seems slow, but afterwards, my computer seems to work much better. I've also installed Oracle 11g on my computer which seems to take up about 500MB of RAM, roughly.

When I start up my computer, what I see is the blue lock on my network icon on the system tray for a good few minutes. If I just wait to use my computer a few minutes, it's just fine and it goes away. I've tried using the internet during the time when the blue lock is still on and it seems to work. This kind of makes me want to believe that the service that changes the icon seems to run last. I don't know, honestly, but that's just a guess.

I should also mention that I know about the free tools like CCleaner, Malwarebytes, Microsoft Security Essentials and Spybot Search & Destroy. I've run all these and my system is clean. My specs are:
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Processor: E6750
RAM: 4GB Kingston ValueRAM
Video: NVIDIA 8800 GTS 320MB

Any idea what I should do? By the way, I did run some sort of startup booster that required 6 restarts. It's here. However, I seem to have been missing something, as when I tried to EnablePrefetcher and EnableSuperfetch registry settings I could not locate them.

I was told that with Windows 7, I don't need a 3rd party optimizer, like what's in those software suites. Please help. Thanks.

Petey7 · 07 Nov 2010

To enable prefetch and superfetch go to the start menu and type services and press enter. Scroll down to see the settings for both (should be automatic). Also go to the start menu and type msconfig and press enter. Go to the boot tab and press advanced options. Make sure both boxes are unticked. Some say that ticking both makes a difference, but only if you are setting it less than the max, as is sometimes done in advanced troubleshooting to see if RAM or a CPU is faulty. If the boxes are ticked and you untick them, make sure to tick the Make all boot settings permanent box before pressing OK.

Changes to Superfetch will take some time as it remembers what is loaded at start up and after logging in. You can also look at the start up tab in msconfig and see how many entries there are. Untick any that you don't need or might be causing the problem.

whs · 07 Nov 2010

Your best be is not to use any of thoe "wonder programs". They will just mess up your system. Instead, disable all the startup programs (except your AV program and the ones you have set yourself).

Airbot · 07 Nov 2010

You can take a look at the things in here. Maybe a couple that would help out.

Optimize Windows 7

HonorGamer · 07 Nov 2010

whs said:

Your best be is not to use any of thoe "wonder programs". They will just mess up your system. Instead, disable all the startup programs (except your AV program and the ones you have set yourself).

I can see why you would do that on a custom built computer, but what about ones that people just buy?

karlsnooks · 07 Nov 2010

Simple. You uninstall them.

Please follow previous advice and uncheck everything in the STartUp tab of MsConfig, that isn't absolutiely necessary. This will do no harm. If you find that you went too far unchecking, then smple recheck the item(s) you need.

I stripped mine down. Here's a snip of mine showing ALL programs that the startup tab "starts".

I want to speed up my startup-startupprograms.png

Petey7 · 07 Nov 2010

HonorGamer said:

whs said:

Your best be is not to use any of thoe "wonder programs". They will just mess up your system. Instead, disable all the startup programs (except your AV program and the ones you have set yourself).

I can see why you would do that on a custom built computer, but what about ones that people just buy?

It is probably more important to do it with ones that you go out and buy because manufactuers put a whole lot of preinstalled software on their computers. Anything that is trial software can go ahead and be removed but the user may not want to delete everything that was preinstalled, so setting that software to not run is probably a good idea. Although, if the user is not aware of what should and should not be disabled, it's probably best to leave well enough alone or use a bit of trial and error, assuming you know how to correct any problems you may cause.

EDIT: I just want to add that I sometimes go a step futher and remove the item from the list completely. Some programs will have this as an option, others you can remove from the startup folder in the start menu, and those that remain you will have to go into the registry to remove (not recommended for inexperienced users).

HonorGamer · 07 Nov 2010

That is exactly what I was thinking. I just bought a brand new Acer laptop i think on thursday, and theres loads of processes that i don't know what they are.

karlsnooks · 07 Nov 2010

Petey,
With CCleaner you can remove the item completely from the startup tab.

In CCleaner | in the left-hand column click on Tools | in the Tools display click on Startup | highlight an item and choose Delete

karlsnooks · 07 Nov 2010

HonorGamer said:

That is exactly what I was thinking. I just bought a brand new Acer laptop i think on thursday, and theres loads of processes that i don't know what they are.

Don't disable processes. Far too risky. Disable items in the startup list.

You can also
Control Panel | Programs and Features | right-click on any programs you don't want and choose Uninstall.