5 Ways to Speed up Your Computer Startup

Nothing more dreaded than rebooting your computer 15 minutes before your deadline! Yes, it might take only a minute or two (if everything is OK) but it can seem forever! Here is 5 ways that we you can speed up you computer startup.

1. Remove/Disable Unnecessary Service

If you notice, when you boot up your computer things start popping up one by one to the point of freezing up your computer. 

You got your Yahoo Messenger and Skype starting up and trying to auto sign in or maybe your antivirus starting up and running a quick scan and when you try to open up the Windows Explorer, your computer start showing those vexing hourglass. 

That’s the thing that you see. What about the programs or services that you didn’t see running on the background during the startup like your Bluetooth service or your Adobe updater? 

Here how you can remove or disable some of these services.
a. Click Start  and type Run. In the Open box, type in msconfig and click OK button.

b. System Configuration dialog box will popup. Click on Startup tab. You can see what actually triggered when your computer boots up or when you logging to your windows profile. Uncheck the box which you felt unnecessary. 

Here is before I make any changes.

Here is after changes have been made. I only left those necessary Windows service only.

2.    Change services run at startup to "Automatic (Delay Start)" 

Another way to speed up your windows loading time is by delaying some of the services from executing during the windows startup. 

a.    Click Start  and type Run. In the Open box, type in services.msc and click OK button.

b.    The services management console will popup (as per screenshot). Click on “Startup Type” column to sort the services startup by “Automatic”. 

c.    Double click on any of the service that you might think not necessary to start early. 

Caution: Make sure you read the service description. Rule of thumb, if you are not sure what kind of service it is, don’t change it. The best service to disable is from the third party such as Adobe, Java or Foxit.

d.    On the Startup Type, change from Automatic to Automatic (Delayed Start). Click the OK button. 

e.    You are done! Repeat c & d for other services.

3. Upgrade your RAM

Sometimes, you just ran out juice. Applications are more sophisticated nowadays and some of them requires more memory than others and it keeps on increasing year after year. If you don’t regularly reformat your machine, it’s a good idea to upgrade your RAM to a larger one (eg. 1GB to 2GB or 4GB). 

Just make sure if you are upgrading to 4GB or more, you are using Windows OS 64-bit to fully utilized the memory. If you are running on 32-bit Windows OS, you are limited to 3.25GB of memory due to the limitation of the 32-bit platform. 

4. Change your hard disk to Solid State Drive (SSD)

These days, your hard disk might be the one holding you back from getting a good performance on your computer. This includes faster Windows loading time. 

Good thing is that technology once again saves the day, introducing the Solid State Drive or SSD. For 40 years, hard disk has been the same, one spindle and few layers of thin flat platters, which store your data. So, it’s limited mostly due to the mechanical parts. SSD on the other hand are using similar technology as your USB thumb drive. So, it’s less depending on that one particular spindle to read or write your data in the hard disk, giving you a better read and write speed.

5. Uninstall program that you never use

Another simple solution is to just uninstall any program that you never use or use it once or twice only. By doing this, it removes all unnecessary services and background processes that it might be running as well as freeing up the space in your hard disk. Simple isn’t it? With this tweaks, you can DIY(Do it Yourself) laptop repair at home if your computer is slow.