How To Make Windows Boot Quicker

You've done this all before. And got the t-shirt. You have something that you urgently need to do on your computer but it's switched off. You curse under your breath. You're in for a long wait while Windows messes around and thinks about waking up your PC. I mean, it's not like it's got other things to do.

Windows

So how can you make your Windows PC boot up quicker?

It seems like the longer you own your computer, the longer it takes for it to boot up. You begin to think that Microsoft has shares in your energy company as they appear to want you to leave your computer running 24 hours a day.

The good news is that there are a few things you can do to speed up the time it takes your computer to boot up.

Microsoft

When it starts, Windows double checks all the programs that run every time you start your PC. All the essential stuff like Windows itself. And all the other things you've asked it to run. Windows Messenger. iTunes for your music. Your anti-virus software. Maybe a spyware checker. Skype or another VOIP program. Anything and everything you might need. Every time Windows boots up, it checks each and every one of these start-up programs.

It is possible to discover what these programs are. But you should be careful - just because you don't recognize a program doesn't automatically mean it shouldn't be running. Some of the services that run behind the scenes have names you wouldn't begin to guess at. But if you remove them, you'll be in trouble. If you're in any doubt about a start-up program, play safe and leave it be. It's not worth shaving off a few seconds on boot up only to have a PC that refuses to work at all. So it's probably worth leaving this to your friendly techie.

The next thing you can do is clean up the Windows registry. This is the dark place where Windows stores information about your PC and the programs on it. A lot of this is either needed or at least useful. But removing or upgrading programs will almost always leave traces of itself in the registry. This causes your PC to slow down. Occasionally it could even crash your computer altogether.

The easiest way to clean the registry is to run a special piece of software called (surprisingly enough) a registry checker. This will wizz through your registry, looking for errors, inconsistencies and out of date information. Once it's done that, you'll get a report and the program can be allowed to go off and correct the errors it's found. This is simple, quick and effective. Personally, I let Error Sweeper run every night to find and fix registry errors.

If you'd like to know more about speeding up your Windows system, click here.