modified MSCONFIG, oh boy

I am running WIN7 pro with 4K memory. In trying to speed up my boot time (which was 90 seconds) I went in MSCONFIG and checked the 'number of processors' entered 2 and checked the 'maximum memory' entered 4096. Rebooted PC. It booted like it was in safe mode and took over 30 minutes to boot. Yikes. Went back in MSCONFIG and saw the memory was set to 200. Don't understand how that happened. I unchecked the processors and memory that I had changed. Rebooted PC. Booted normally but now it takes 180-250 seconds to boot. This has been consistent over that last dozen boots now. I would like to figure out how to get it back to the 90 seconds boot time. Any ideas? I did do a restore to a point prior to changing the settings but I still get the 180-250 seconds to boot. I have tried to do a repair at bootup (F8 key) but it found nothing. The 90 seconds might seem high to some but I have anti-virus (Norton), anti-malware (malwarebytes), system tool (IOBIT), and other programs loading at startup.

The tabs you want in msconfig are Startup and Services (after Hiding all MS Services). Uncheck everything there except your AV and any sync, gadgets or Stickies. Everything else are freeloaders that don't need to start with Windows and only sneak in there to spy on you posing as "Updaters."

Try one of the free lightweight AV's recommended in Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7 to test the difference.

Let us know how that works.

I attached 3 pics of what msconfig looks like now. I also did a remove and reinstall of the Norton 360 tool. Boot still takes around 180 seconds or more.

Norton is bloatware that can cause problems.

IOBit is a tweaking tool not needed at all by a featherlight OS that runs perfectly with an install like the one compiled here: Clean Reinstall Windows 7. The tools which work best for Win7 are included.

So as I said earlier you don't need any of those starting up with Win7 except a free lightweight AV like MSE. If you've paid for MBAM then you can leave it but its Real Time Protection is really only needed by the chronically infected. The scanner is free.

Unless you use special video settings only available in the Intel software it doesn't need to start because it only provides an Updater function which is actuallly spying on your consumer habits to sell the info. Ditto Logitech. Neither of these need to start up with Windows at all.

Those programs were installed years ago when I use to boot up in 90 seconds or less. I still would like to be able to solve the problem of why the boot time doubled after my mistake with the msconfig changes.

A 90 second boot is terrible. I wouldn't settle for less than 20-30 seconds with a hard drive.

Did you try booting without Norton to see if the problem went away? The reason I ask is we see these kinds of problems with Norton all the time. This is why I suggested you install MSE to compare the difference. This solution resolves problems regularly.

IOBit regularly causes problems resolved by System Restoring to before it ruined Windows, uninstalling it, or doing a Clean Reinstall Windows 7 if it is too late and it's already ruined Windows.

I have a long line of those waiting for help and no longer help those who are not fully cooperative or who want to do things their way even though we've solved literally tens of thousands of these cases.

You might install a free program called Startup Delayer from r2Studios (an Australia company). A wonderful program that is poorly named (!) it has a "running tasks" tab where you can select also a "Start Time" column and sort on it, where you look for long delays between tasks. If the culprit is one of those svchost things then the Process Id might lead you to what that represents.

Of course, your delay may be in advance of Windows' core components being loaded but at least this is easy to try.

I removed Norton, IOBit and MBAM. The boot time went from 180 seconds to 120 seconds. I installed Startup Delayer but it only flashes on the screen when I try to run it. Working the r2Studios to figure that out.