How to speed up Windows XP startup?
Article By: Editor | Topic: Slow PC?, Start Up Windows
As a Windows XP computer user, you’ve probably felt the pain of your computer taking an exceptionally long time to load after booting up. Some people literally have to wait five minutes or more for their desktop to display after their computer boots - now, we don’t know what your personal wait time is, but we do know of two ways to speed up the Windows XP startup process. That’s what we’re going to share with you here.
# Reason for slow XP startup: too many startup applications
Right after your computer boots up and before the desktop displays, there is a lot going on “under the hood” of your computer. Namely, essential operating system processes are executing and a barrage of programs are starting up at the exact same time. While some of these startup processes and programs are necessary - often times there are many unnecessary programs getting loaded when your computer is starting up for the first time - programs that are eating away at your available memory and computer resources. These unnecessary programs are essentially holding your computer hostage until they run their course, and by removing the commands to start certain programs when your computer’s loading, you will speed up the Windows XP startup process.
How to stop unnecessary programs from loading on boot up?
Now, this process is a bit technical and it can be somewhat problematic if you remove the wrong startup entry, but here is one method that you can use to eliminate unnecessary startup programs:
- When your desktop has loaded, click Start >> Run
- A box should popup and just type in: msconfig then hit your “enter” key or “Ok”.
- Click on the “Startup” tab
At this point, you’ll see several lines and checkboxes on the left. The checked boxes represent programs that are scheduled to load when your computer is booting and unchecked boxes represent programs that should not load when your computer is booting up. Now, we cannot possibly list all of the applications that can be safely “unchecked”, that is something that you will have to research on your own.
However, certain applications like Skype, Yahoo, AIM, Java updater, Quicktime and the Google toolbar notifier are generally safe to uncheck. If you’re not sure about an application, do not uncheck it or visit a computer forum and ask somebody who knows. Another thing - if you do not recognize a program name, do not uncheck it; removing necessary startup programs can cause system instability or worse - proceed with caution when utilizing this tip.
# Reason for slow XP startup: a messy registry
Your windows registry is the brains behind your computer - if it’s full of empty entries or outdated information it can really slow down your Windows XP startup time.
Fortunately, cleaning your registry is really simple with the help of a registry cleaning utility, and we recommend RegCure because it works and because it’s user-friendly.
By eliminating unnecessary programs and cleaning your registry, you can speed up your Windows XP startup time exponentially. As with any PC repair or optimization, please use caution and ask for help if you need it. Speeding up your PCs startup time is something to strive for, but don’t risk damaging your computer for the sake of saving a few minutes a day - if you aren’t comfortable with modifying your startup programs, just using a registry cleaning tool may make a significant difference alone; it’s certainly worth a try.
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