Slow startup upon login

C

Chef Ramsey

Active Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2007
Messages
279
Hey all,

When I log in to Windows my computer is very, very slow. Again this is after I click my name, input my password and hit the green arrow. I will get in, my desktop loads up but I can't click anything. There is a long delay from intial login until it is ready to go. Once I am past this delay the computer works fine.

I have removed most everything from startup via msconfig, defragged, ran a virus scan, and ran a spyware scan. None of this seems to make much of a difference. I have not touched the registry and I really do not want to reinstall windows.

Here are my specs

AMD 64 4000+
2 gigs PC3200
160GIG HD
7600GT PCI-e

If you need anything else let me know.
 
Go to the start menuc, click on Run.

Then type 'msconfig'

From there click the 'startup' tab.

That will give you a list of all of the programs that are starting when your computer start. A computer can run with absolutely nothing in the startup as all vital programs are actually known as and launched as services. Beyond doing this you can also start disabling services you don't need, though that requires a lot of time and trial and error.

Also so you know many programs such as virus programs run on boot up and self update as well. Virus programs can slow down your computer and especially your boot up dramatically as some do scans on the startup.
 
Scott he already tried the MSconfig. It is in the beginning of the second paragraph. :P

Chef- Do u have a lot of icons on your desktop? I know the computer takes that with loading the desktop when it has a lot of icons on it.

How big of a Hard Drive do you have and how much is used up already?
Even though windows is just on a certain section of the drive windows still runs a small service that checks the integrity of the hard drive upon start up.

Other than that I do not have anymore tips on what you can do or what it can be. Good Luck.
 
Clarko said:
Scott he already tried the MSconfig. It is in the beginning of the second paragraph. :P
Click to expand...
Touche, reading pwns me :(

At work and skimming a lot of times, guess I shouldn't do that so much!

Though if your desktop is delaying like that, it is likely that it's a program that is loading up and causing this. Some anti-viruses and spyware/ad-aware detectors do load up as services as well as on the startup, so you may want to check into this as well.

If you feel comfortable enough doing this, like I said you can start disabling un-needed services as there are a TON of them. Though if you're not advanced enough and don't feel comfortable doing it, please do not attempt it!
 
Chef Ramsey said:
I am comfortable doing that but do not know what services are not needed.
Click to expand...

They all have descriptions on them when you go through the the Administrator Tools.

My suggestion would be to do some research. I did this before and tweaked my computer and I think I have something like 10 services running and the rest were disabled.

After that my computer started up so fast it was unbelievable. Though many windows features did not function properly :)
 
The only bit of advice I can offer here is what I do.

When was the last time you re-installed windows? I have 2 hard drives, and once a year move everything important to my backup drive, and nuke my PC and re-install. Cleaning up a PC can help, but in my experience after a while you have so much garbage left over from program updates, re-installs, and uninstalls that do not cleanup all the mess that you just have to wipe the disk and start over.

Also keep in mind some Anti-Virus products will not load the interface until they have completed starting up the AV. I know that is responisble for about a 10 second delay on my personal PC.
 
I have an 80gig external HD but omg the thought of transferring it all over then putting it back scares me! I know a fresh install is nice.
 
I'm in the same camp Pyro78 is - if you get to the point where you just can't clean it up anymore, go for the fresh install! I format and reinstall once a year...of course, I also keep all of my program files and personal files (pictures, documents, etc) on separate partitions, so when I format the Windows partition I don't lose anything else. Yeah, it takes a little time, but there's nothing like a clean install to make you happy!

The easiest way to figure out exactly what is still running in the background that's killing your boot time is to turn EVERYTHING off in msconfig, reboot and then turn one thing on at a time, rebooting each time until the problem comes up again. If you disable everything and you still can't boot in a regular amount of time, then do the same thing with services as Scott suggested. Good luck!
 
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What version of windows are you running? Because I used to have Windows ME and I had the same sort of issues. I took off all but the necessary startup programs but it was still VERY slow in starting up.
 
Windows XP with SP3
I just removed a bunch of unceccssary stuff from startup, time to test it!
 
After removing some startup items it has sped up a little bit. It is still slow on the upkeep so I went to reinstall XP but I can't find my XP disc. Time to do some searching!
 
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