Millions of Windows computers boot every day, and every day millions of people sit back and wait for Windows to load onto their desktop. The amount of wasted time can probably be measured in weeks, given how slow most Windows computers boot! Fortunately, there are many ways to make your computer boot up faster.
In this article, I’m going to mention 14 different ways I’ve sped up my computer in recent years, and hopefully you find that they work for you too. Some of them can be implemented immediately, while others will require the purchase of new hardware or an operating system change. I am not going to mention buying a new computer as it is an obvious decision. The point is to speed up your downloads without having to radically change your current setting.
Before we get to the list, I would like to mention that I have written separate articles with quite a few tips for improving load times, so it is recommended that you check each link as it goes into detail on how to implement this. specific offer.
Free up disk space
The first thing I do on any computer that is slow is to clean up disk space, because I found this happening more often than I could ever imagine. There are many Windows features that take up quite a lot of disk space, such as Recycle Bin, System Restore, Hibernation File, Service Pack File Backups, then WinSxS folder, temp directories, etc.
On top of that, you may have a lot of data on your hard drive that you can move to an external hard drive or delete like duplicate files. Check out my previous posts about removing all of the above from your hard drive:
Free up disk space on Windows
Reduce the size of the WinSxS folder
Remove duplicate files and photos
Disable visual effects
On most modern PCs this tip won’t matter much, but on older machines it can make a lot of difference. It can also matter if you have a decent computer but a bad video card.
Disabling visual effects on Windows will basically make your computer look more like Windows 2000 as it will get rid of the Aero theme and remove all transparency and animation. As far as load times are concerned, disabling visual effects will cause the desktop to open quickly.
Disable visual effects on Windows
Improved page file
The paging file has always played an important role in Windows, and while most people never associate with the paging file, it can be used to improve Windows performance and reduce boot time when configured correctly.
It is especially important to optimize the paging file if your computer is low on RAM. If the RAM is less than 4 GB, then you can play with the swap file.
Optimize paging file on Windows
Install more RAM
I’ve seen many modern Windows 8 computers with Core i3, i5, or i7 processors, but only manageable with 2 or 4 GB of RAM! 4GB is not bad and should be enough for most people, but there is no reason any modern computer should have less RAM than installed.
If you are running 64-bit Windows on a desktop computer, you should try to use 8GB of RAM. Note that if you have a 32-bit OS, Windows still cannot see more than 4GB of RAM, so this is the maximum size you should have set.
Determine if you are using 32-bit or 64-bit Windows
Defragment your hard drive
Again, this particular tip will help those using older versions of Windows like Vista or XP, as Windows 7 and Windows 8 will automatically defragment hard drives.
Also, if you are using an SSD (Solid State Drive) instead of a traditional hard drive, you do NOT want to defragment the drive.
Defragmenting hard drives in Windows
Should you defrag your SSD?
Disable startup programs
Startup programs are another important factor contributing to slow Windows boot times. If you’re one of those people who has more than five icons in the notification area on the taskbar, loading times can probably be shortened. Using the MSCONFIG utility that comes with almost all versions of Windows, you can quickly and easily disable running programs.
Most startup programs can be disabled as they target third-party programs such as Adobe, Dropbox, Google Update, etc. You can manually launch all of these programs yourself when you need to use them, thereby reducing your Windows startup time.
Disable startup programs in Windows
How to use MSCONFIG
Uninstall programs
Besides disabling startup programs, you should also uninstall any programs that you no longer need. I have seen many computers with tons and tons of applications from yesteryear that just sit on people’s computers like dust on a fan. There comes a time when you need to get rid of these programs because they add registry entries that slow down the boot process.
Automatically remove or remove programs
Run cleaning tools
One of the problems you can run into when uninstalling many programs is that the registry entries they create are not necessarily deleted. In such cases, I always recommend running a cleanup utility like CCleaner because they are very safe and affect boot times.
PC cleaning and speeding up software
Upgrade to an SSD
I didn’t mean to mention the hardware, but it can be a fairly cheap option with huge benefits. You can get a 64GB or 128GB SSD for probably under $ 100 today and only install Windows on that drive. Obviously, migrating your current installation or installing from scratch is a lot of work, so not everyone can do it, but it’s worth a try.
The SSD dramatically improved boot times on my Windows 7 computer and also made programs run much faster on Windows. Even though this is not an easy task, it will bring you much more profit than most of the software tips I have mentioned here.
Upgrade to Windows 8.1
Even though many people hate Window 8, myself included, it loads very quickly. I have a three-year-old machine with a Core i3 processor, 4GB of RAM with a cheap SSD, and Windows 8 that boots from a complete shutdown to a full desktop load in about 10 seconds. My Windows 7 machine on the same hardware (dual boot) takes about 45 seconds.
Windows 8.1 now bypasses the annoying Start screen and takes you straight to the desktop, but there is still no real Start button. This appears to be making a comeback in Windows 10, but we’ll have to wait until late 2015 before we see the OS release. In any case, if you can put up with the troubles of Windows 8, you will see a huge reduction in boot time, even with semi-old hardware.
Change BIOS settings
When your computer first boots, it loads the BIOS, which in turn loads the operating system. A significant portion of the download time can be wasted at this stage, and none of the tips mentioned so far will help speed this process up at all.
This is because the BIOS is stored on a memory chip on the motherboard and is therefore independent of anything else in the system, including hardware like RAM, hard drive, etc. There are basically two ways to speed up the BIOS process : Change the boot order so that the OS hard drive is listed first, and enable Fast Boot, which will disable all hardware checks that are initially performed during the boot process.
You will have to google a little to see if your BIOS supports this, or you can enter the BIOS by pressing F2 or whatever key it tells you at startup. It might also be worth updating the BIOS if you haven’t done so in a very long time or never.
Keep your computer up to date
When Windows boots up, it needs to load a lot of drivers to make sure everything is working properly, like your USB ports, video card, sound card, hard drive, network card, memory chips, etc., etc.
In such a case, it is important to keep all of these drivers up to date as the latest versions contain fixes, speed improvements, compatibility improvements, etc. Fortunately, there are many software tools that can automatically update drivers for you.
Also, you should always install the latest Windows updates using the Windows Update tool in Control Panel.
Automatically update device drivers
Disable unnecessary hardware
If you can reduce the number of drivers that Windows has to load at startup, you will also reduce boot times. If you go to Device Manager, you will see that there are several items that you can disable if you are no longer using them.
Some of the items I’ve disabled include floppy drives and controllers, Bluetooth and radio controllers, modems, and virtual Wi-Fi adapters. Obviously, you only want to disable what you are not going to use. I never use Bluetooth on my desktop, so why waste resources, right?
Use a static IP address
I really didn’t believe this advice when I first heard about it, but when I tried it on my computer, I was surprised to see that the boot time dropped by a few seconds. Obviously, your computer needs to communicate with the DHCP server of the router in order to obtain an IP address at boot time, and this process can be accelerated if you just set a static IP address for your router.
I only recommend doing this if you’ve noticed that you’ve done it, because having a static IP address can sometimes cause a lot of problems for people that are hard to understand unless you are tech-savvy. For example, if you remove a computer from your local network and connect to another network, you will not be able to access any resources or the Internet because your subnet does not match the subnet of the new network. So it’s only recommended to do this if you understand how it works.
Assign a static IP address on Windows
That’s all. I hope you enjoyed the list and some tips helped speed up your downloads. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to leave comments. Enjoy!
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