Even with fast hardware and the latest operating system, logging into Windows can become very slow if many programs are running when Windows starts. Note that I am not talking about how long it takes to boot Windows, because this is a completely different beast.
I have written before about speeding up Windows boot up and speeding up Windows 10 Simply reading these articles will help you guarantee Windows 10 speed up. One of the common topics you’ll see in these articles is managing startup items.
As mentioned earlier, your Windows 8 or Windows 10 PC may boot in 10 seconds, but after entering your password, it may take more than a minute to enter a fully functional desktop due to running programs. I’ve already written a detailed article on how to disable startup programs in Windows 7 and above, which you should read first.
However, there are situations when it is simply impossible to disable everything. You may be working in a corporate environment and you need to run certain programs when you log in. If you are a business owner or professional, you may have specific business applications that you want to run when you sign in.
In this case, you need something different. One interesting solution to this problem is to delay the loading of startup programs for a few minutes after logging in. In this article, I will introduce a program called Startup Delayer that does just that.
Delayed startup
After you download and install the program, it will show you a dialog box when you first start the program. This is where you choose how the startup delay will behave.
Please note that you can change any settings you have chosen here later in the program settings. There is a slider in the dialog box where the far left corner means that you want your programs to load as quickly as possible, and you don’t mind if your computer is slow or sluggish. There really isn’t any point in using this app if you choose the far left corner, because all programs are loaded immediately – which is what happens by default when you log into Windows.
When you move the slider to the right, you will see that it is almost the same except for the CPU and Disk Idle values. By default, it is set to 30%, which means that the program will wait until your computer is idle for at least 30% before launching your selected deferred applications.
Moving to the far right means deferred applications will start later, but more smoothly. You may have to wait a minute or so for the application to launch. The Startup Delayer manages all of this and automatically launches applications when the desired idle value is reached.
After clicking the “Save” button, you will be taken to the main interface of the program. Here you will see 3 tabs at the top: Startup, Tasks in Progress, and System Services. As the name of the first tab suggests, this will list all applications that Windows starts.
Startup items are divided into three categories: delayed, normal startup, and disabled. You can simply drag and drop items to the section you want. To postpone an application, simply drag it from Normal Startup to Delayed, as shown below.
The first item you drag and drop will take priority on load. As new items are added, they will be added to the queue. When the Startup Delayer loads programs, it starts in the order shown. You can change the order of the items by dragging and dropping them.
When you select an item, you will see that auto-delay is selected and the default values ??for CPU and DISK in standby are listed. You can change the idle values ??for each application individually, if you like, simply by selecting an item and entering new values.
If you double-click any of the deferred applications, you can configure additional options. The General tab allows you to edit the target if you want to add any command line parameters to the program.
In the Delay tab, you can change the idle values ??again, or select a manual delay if you want, but the program developers do not recommend using manual delays.
In the Waiting tab, you can select the check box to ensure that the application has been loaded before the delayed launch continues to load other applications. You can also set it up so that Startup Delay waits for the current program to finish or user confirmation before starting the next application.
On the Advanced tab, you can configure the settings so that the program runs only on certain days, does not start if another instance is already running, or starts when it detects an Internet connection. This option can be useful in certain situations. For example, do you really need Skype to run if there is no internet connection?
Finally, back at the home screen, you can click the green Add button to add a program that isn’t already on the list. This can be really useful for things like launching a web browser, MS Office applications, or any other program that might not start automatically when you log into Windows.
The Running Tasks section lists all current processes running on the system. Again, if something isn’t listed on the main tab, you can go to Tasks in Progress, select a process, and then click the little round plus button. I would be very careful adding anything from here to the deferred section because many of the listed processes are Windows processes.
Fortunately, they have a filter that lets you hide all Microsoft processes so that you can only see processes created by third-party programs. Just click the Filter button and then click Hide everything created by Microsoft.
The last tab is System Services, which lets you stop, start, and disable Windows services, but for the purposes of this article, you should just leave it alone if you don’t know what you are doing.
Before we get to the question of whether this program actually works well or not, there are a couple of small points worth mentioning. First, you can click the Options button in the upper right corner of the main interface to change the behavior of the program. I personally didn’t have to tinker with any settings here, but if you need more information during the login process, you can click the Startup Process tab and select Always Show at Startup and check Show Startup Process Window on Startup “.
By default, the program hides well and pops up only during login if something goes wrong. Otherwise, you won’t even know that something is happening. What’s nice about the program is that it has tons of options, so you can see additional information if you like.
Second, you can click the Tools button to do even more, such as create startup profiles, view the last startup log, view the latest performance graph, back up all your settings, etc.
Performance results
So does this program really work? Well when I tried it back in 2008 it didn’t work. Then it’s just a manual delay that didn’t work very well. However, in the years that followed, the program became much more advanced, and in my tests on Windows 7 it significantly improved the user experience.
Instead of sitting around and waiting for the desktop to be clickable, or after the Start menu appears after 10 clicks, Startup Delayer can make things seem fast. Obviously, you will have to wait a bit for some programs to load, but I never felt like I needed one of these launchers to load right after login.
It’s also worth noting that the program becomes more useful if you have more startup items. If you only have a couple of things loaded at startup, it probably won’t matter much. Let us know if the program helped on your system or not. Enjoy!
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