Tutorials | How to speed up Windows booting and How to Improve your System Resources

Publish date: 17:59 Thursday, 28th July 2005
Written by: MishY
Audience intended for: Windows ME Users, Windows 98 Users, Windows 95 Users
Category: Windows

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The most common cause of Windows loading slowly, low system resources, and Windows running sluggishly is when you turn on your computer is having too many programs load at startup. Programs such as Real Media Player, ICQ and other instant messaging programs etc. Cutting down on the amount of programs that load at startup improves your system resources (making windows more stable), and also speeds up your boot time.

Right click "My Computer" and click Properties (People with Windows keyboards can hold down the Windows key and press Pause/Break as an alternative shortcut). The "System Properties" window will now popup

Click on the Performance tab

Your system resources will be shown in a percentage value under the heading "Performance Status :"

Ideally you should have your System Resources say after restarting your PC in the region of 80%-95%

But I've got lots of RAM why are my System Resources so low ?

The following link has a great description of how system resources differ from RAM - Click Here

So how do you stop this ?

There is a handy utility that comes with Windows 98, ME, and XP called "System Configuration Utility" which allows you to choose which programs you would like to load at startup.

Warning :

Although this procedure is a safe one, and very commonly used, it does require some basic PC knowledge in order to appreciate what is happening and all aspects of it. If you have any questions prior to attempting this please post on our Support Forums where we can go into every single detail if need be for you so you're comfortable with what you will be doing.

Here's how to use it :

Click Start / Run / and then type into the Run: box "MSCONFIG" (without the "")

This will load the System Configuration Utility

The first thing you should do is concentrate on the startup tab rather than the autoexec and config files/sections of the utility. The autoexec.bat and config.sys aspects of the System Configuration Utility will be dealt with in another tutorial

Click on the Startup tab

In the white pane you will see all the programs that load every time you turn on your computer

This is how you can stop programs from loading at startup :

To stop programs from loading at startup firstly choose which programs you would like to keep loading at startup, and which you wouldn't

Secondly, you will need to understand the following 4 important points :

1) Whatever you choose to not load at startup will NOT effect whether you can use this program or not. The program will run as normal for you but will NOT load at startup. The most obvious sign of a program loading at startup would be a small icon next to the clock on your desktop. By choosing to not have it load at startup you will still be able to use the program, but the icon next to the clock will not be there.

2) The following programs you MUST NOT stop from loading at startup as they are needed by Windows :

• ScanRegistry
• LoadPowerProfile (there will be 2 occurrences of this and it is normal)
• Systray
• Avoid disabling your Antivirus loading at startup (unless you know what you're doing), so avoid Norton, McAfee, InoculateIT program items (depending on the Antivirus software you use)
• Avoid disabling any software Firewall you may be using such as Zone Alarm (unless you know what you're doing)

NOTE: LoadPowerProfile - LoadPowerProfile is Power management specifics such as monitor shut-off, system standby, etc. Associated with power management and is listed twice. This can be disabled if the user doesn't have any of the above setup.

3) If you stop a program from loading at startup and at a later date decide you would like to have it load at startup again repeat the following process but instead of removing the tick next to the programs name ADD it.

4) If you're not sure what a program is that is listed do NOT disable it. Ask on our support forums and we will help you to find out what it is and what it is used for. Or alternatively this is a great link to a whole listing of programs you might find under the Startup tab and what they do - click here

Once you're happy that you understand the above 4 points -

Find a program you don't want to load at startup and remove the tick from besides it's name

To confirm what you've done click Apply

Once you have disabled all that you would like to disable click Apply then OK and Windows will ask you to restart your PC

Your PC will reboot as normal and once Windows has fully loaded recheck your system resources like you did earlier on in this tutorial. You should see that you System Resources are now quite a bit higher.

Please Note: if you have any questions about this tutorial please ask on our support forums
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