PC SLOW GETTING TO Windows

[gogreen1]

New at computer. Have new HP 8600 It seems unusually long after I boot till Windows shows up. I've heard that having a lot Icons in the systems tray can cause this. (ie These programs are running)In my systems tray there is:
Task Scheduler, Norton Anti Virus, Adaptec Direct cd, I Touch Key board mouse, AOL IM, AOL, Quick Album, Scanner, and updates HP. Do you think this
could be the problem? If so, where do I go to remedy this. Would appreciate
anyones help. Thanks.
Jim

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Jim

[dale]

There could be many reasons why things are slow at startup. Having lots of programs that run in the background (represented by the icons on the taskbar) will definitely slow things down. This can be a two fold problem, one is that you have so many things starting and, so many things starting at the same time - as such, Windows kills itself trying to context switch between all the simultaneously running programs to give each "equal time" and your memory fills up, so then you have paging and sometimes swapping occuring. You have a couple options:

1. Go to "Programs->StartUp" and remove any programs you think you can do without (program that need to run all the time that is. Removing the icon from the menu does not permanently delete the program).

2. I have seen some shareware programs that allow you to control the startup process so that you can start each background program individually without it having to compete with other running programs. This might speed up your startup, but probably only slightly since each program is now starting one after the other instead of all at the same time.

dale

[ReddDogg]

There are two things that let you remove things from starting up at beginning of winders safely. First, as dale said, remove items from startup menu. I always leave my startup menu empty, if I want it running, I will start it myself. Another safe way to disable things that startup in the systray is to go to run line and type in "msconfig" and then hit ok. It lets you edit startup files with check boxes and such. I don't recommend playing with any tabs in there except the "startup" tab, nothing in there is absolutely nessesarry, and if you remove a check in there and it gives unwanted result, you can always boot into safemode and run the program and put the check back in. you can safely edit other files, and if you are comfortable with doing so, then have at it with msconfig, but if you are unsure of yourself, stick to startup tab in there and the startup folder under programs in winders start menu.

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Joe Redd
MCP

[gogreen1]

Thanks Dale and Joe, Your expert advice has helped alot.
Jim

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Jim

[Paleo Pete]

dale I have to disagree on one point. Several things in msconfig do need to stay there:
Taskbar Display Controls if you want to have icons in the taskbar for certain items
Scan Registry is self explanatory
Task Monitor isn't absolutely necessary, but can be good to have
System Tray must be there and
Load Power Profile should be there if power management is to be used.

I wouldn't remove any of these items except for temporary troubleshooting purposes.

gogreen1 How long is the system taking to boot? If it's in the two minute range, that's pretty much normal. 3 minutes actually isn't out of the ballpark, but is a bit on the long side. If it's 2 minutes or under, you're in good shape. Mine takes 1 minute 35-40 seconds with McAffee loading.

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