How to determine your Boot & Shutdown times

The Event Viewer contains, although often well-hidden, some useful info.

Here's how to determine your Boot & Shutdown times:

WIN key | type EVENTVWR.MSC | ENTER key

First wait for the Event Viewer to be populated-watch the Summary of Administrative Events section.

Now, using the left-hand pane tunnel down as follows:
Applications and services logs | Microsoft | Windows | Diagnostics-Performance | Operational

Right-click on Operational.

In the top-section of the middle pane, various events are listed.

Click on EventID to sort the events from smallest to largest.

EventID 100 is for Boot Performance.
EventID 200 is for Shutdown Performance

You may find some of the other events to also be of interest.

I read somewhere there was a way to do that, but could not find it. I will remember this. Rep to you.

Unless I did it wrong, it appears you must run as administrator (what I did) or at least be in an adm account.

richc46 said:

I read somewhere there was a way to do that, but could not find it. I will remember this. Rep to you.

.

Click to expand...

Same here !!

Thanks guys. Glad to be of assistance. I ran across this in a Windows OS blog by Sean Wheeler. I had "starred" same and had waited until I'd used the procedure a couple of times to make sure all was good. The "starred" refers to the capability of the Google Reader to mark a blog with a star and then view later by looking at the starred items.

The Boot time must include the time it takes for the BIOS splash screen. My boot times listed by the Eventvwr are +/- 36sec whilst I measured (with the stopwatch) 12 to 15sec from when the "Loading windows" appears on the screen to when my internet is operational (my weatherbug shows data).

Mine shows 58 seconds, including the time for Bios Splash..

My last three show, with rounding: 32.5, 38.5 and 31.5 seconds.

So it does include the BIOS time.

Click on the Details tab for Event 100.

Here's an example:
+ System

- Provider

[ Name] Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Performance
[ Guid] {CFC18EC0-96B1-4EBA-961B-622CAEE05B0A}

EventID 100

Version 2

Level 3

Task 4002

Opcode 34

Keywords 0x8000000000010000

- TimeCreated

[ SystemTime] 2010-08-15T22:19:51.928178900Z

EventRecordID 304

- Correlation

[ ActivityID] {00000000-CB28-0000-8BB7-778EC73CCB01}

- Execution

[ ProcessID] 1524
[ ThreadID] 1596

Channel Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Performance/Operational

Computer karl-PC

- Security

[ UserID] S-1-5-19


- EventData

BootTsVersion 2
BootStartTime 2010-08-15T22:16:49.656000700Z
BootEndTime 2010-08-15T22:19:48.995366400Z
SystemBootInstance 121
UserBootInstance 112
BootTime 31458
MainPathBootTime 15858
BootKernelInitTime 30
BootDriverInitTime 1231
BootDevicesInitTime 4049
BootPrefetchInitTime 4234
BootPrefetchBytes 299302912
BootAutoChkTime 0
BootSmssInitTime 5157
BootCriticalServicesInitTime 1049
BootUserProfileProcessingTime 689
BootMachineProfileProcessingTime 82
BootExplorerInitTime 2688
BootNumStartupApps 6
BootPostBootTime 15600
BootIsRebootAfterInstall false
BootRootCauseStepImprovementBits 0
BootRootCauseGradualImprovementBits 0
BootRootCauseStepDegradationBits 0
BootRootCauseGradualDegradationBits 0
BootIsDegradation false
BootIsStepDegradation false
BootIsGradualDegradation false
BootImprovementDelta 0
BootDegradationDelta 0
BootIsRootCauseIdentified false
OSLoaderDuration 1419
BootPNPInitStartTimeMS 30
BootPNPInitDuration 4086
OtherKernelInitDuration 1145
SystemPNPInitStartTimeMS 5220
SystemPNPInitDuration 1194
SessionInitStartTimeMS 6426
Session0InitDuration 3213
Session1InitDuration 1181
SessionInitOtherDuration 762
WinLogonStartTimeMS 11584
OtherLogonInitActivityDuration 815
UserLogonWaitDuration 76072

Thanks Karl. That is really seeing it in small slices.

Fast boot and shutdown times are great but it must be remembered, assuming the machines run just fine once fully booted, faster boot and shutdown times should not be used as an indicator of system performance - that is, if computer A takes 45 seconds to boot and computer B takes 90 seconds to boot, it does not mean computer A is a better performer. It just means it boots faster and that can be due to many reasons that are NOT related to performance.

Now if the machines are 100% identical in hardware configuration and setup, have the exact same boot options set in the BIOS, have the exact same programs and services set to start at boot, exact same OS and network setup, and one takes twice as long, that indicates a "problem" that needs to be troubleshooted.

Note that many XP machines take 4 minutes or longer to boot. Windows 7 boots faster primarily because Microsoft changed the code to make Win7 available sooner.

You will see many users "bragging" about faster boot times. That is false, or unfounded bravado. You will see many sites and tutorials showing how you can shave seconds off your boot times by removing startup items claiming it improves performance - NOT SO and I challenge anyone to show a real test site that has conducted tests that prove the machine runs better once booted.

Now certainly, you can make your machine perform badly by loading up tons of useless stuff at boot. And sadly, many "free" and shareware programs (even legitimate ones) will attempt to foist toolbars, download managers, and other things we don't want or need that eventually will bog our systems down. But that just means we need to be more conscientious and attentive when installing new program and ALWAYS choose the custom option to opt out of any extra stuff we don't want.

Some users insist loading up your start menu with the programs you use regularly is a bad idea because it slows down your boot times. So what? If you use them regularly, having them ready to go is faster than waiting for them to load up individually when you start to use them.

Most people boot their once day, (if they don't leave them on 24/7). So boot your machine, get your cup of coffee, and come back and you are ready to rock and roll.

I think the most important factor for the boot time is the speed of the disk. We have all seen dramatic improvements after installing SSDs.

True.

No doubt, the disk plays a key role during boot. But, once loaded into RAM, the disk plays a much smaller role.

True, nevertheless, do you have a SSD?

Those of us with SSDs have noticed a great improvement.

take a look over here. it's cool and it works.


|MG| BootRacer 2.3 Download

does the boot time mean how long it takes to reach the desktop

do you have a SSD?

Click to expand...

Not on this machine but I have used machines that do. And no doubt, with disk intensive applications, it can help performance a lot. And boot times are improved signficantly. But it is very dependent on how the user uses the machine, the amount of RAM, and other HW specs.

It is also matters what OS you use. Vista thrashed the HD a lot while Win7 is much better at disk management.

does the boot time mean how long it takes to reach the desktop

Click to expand...

I suppose it depends on who you talk to. On my systems, since I have several things set to load and run at boot, the desktop is reached before I can actually start to use my computer. I have to wait a few more seconds. So to me, I think boot time starts when I hit the power button (or click reboot) and ends when I can start using my computer.