How to make vista boot as fast as possible

random123

Distinguished Member
Well basically I have an acer aspire 5720 with intel core 2 duo processor, 2.0GHz, 4mb L2 Cache and 1gb DDR2 RAM running vista 32 bit and I want my laptop to boot up as fast as possible. I've seen people claim that there vista boots up in 30-50 seconds but mine takes 87 seconds and if i can tone it down to under a minute, I'll be happy

So far, I have run auslogics diskdefragmenter, registry cleaner and boostspeed and also tune up utilities and this has made a difference, I know the obvious way is to install more ram but I want to see what i can do myself to change the boot time

Can anyone suggest any utilities or ways to seriously reduce boost time or reduce it slightly, this is going to be a sort of project i'm gonna work one, post your suggestions/instructions here and i'll try them all,

thanks to everyone,

random123
 
Hi random,

Part of the reason why its slow is due to how the boot proccess was designed. MS has done a few things to make W7's boot time faster supposedly.

On an average day, I get about 5 to 10 second boots of Vista from either my desktop or laptop. The preformance of your hardware is a good start.

Now things you can do as a user:

- Regually clean up and defrag the drive. When I defrag a drive, I usually do it two to three times in addition.
- Only have the basics + security software start when the system starts (ie. You dont need x programs speed launcher or tray app when you start the computer. Adobe, iTunes, QuickTime and a lot of other programs are criminals with this).
- Regually check to see what is starting up with msconfig as when new versions come out or you upgrade software often times x programs like to re-add themselves if they find they're not already present to start automatically.

Some more advanced (and potentially dangerous) stuff:

- Delay auto-start or disable unecessary services. If you're unsure, your best bet is either leaving them alone or setting thier startup status to "Manual" so if an app still needs it it can start but it won't start automatically when you boot.
- Use tweak apps to tweak the registry a bit to improve performance.
 
but when disabling itunes, when i plug my ipod to charge, it doesn't seem to recognise it anymore and you said to disable quicktime, can you explain in more detail how?
 
Disable thier auto-start, not the application/service itself. A lot of them use speed launcher programs that start up automatically. They're great because thier programs might come up a little quicker when you need them, but using them cause the startup proccess to take longer.

So by disable I mean uncheck the applications you don't need on the startup tab of msconfig...

Edit: if you meant disable services instead, set them to manual if you're unsure what to do with them or have problems. Typically I leave the iPod service for example either on auto-start delayed or manual. It depends on whether or not you like iTunes popping up automatically when you plug your iPod in.
 
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Okay done that, a quick question, my current start up programs are as follow, should i untick any of the other start up programs, this is taken from auslogics boost speed by the way as its easier

example-1.png


any more suggestions, i swear the alps touch device driver wasn't there about a month ago but if I disable it i might lose my laptop touchpad, so what more can i do then? thanks
 
Yeah, leave alps pointing device enabled as that is for your mouse. You have lavasoft's adware protection disabled from auto-start which is fine if you don't want boot time protection. Eset GUI and Rocketdock should be disabled unless you want them to auto-start. You could also disable Windows Defender too, but only do this if your current security software provides spyware protection.

Addendum:

Something else I forgot. You may also want to disable the startup sound Vista plays when its booting up. That also can slow down the system as it must wait until it can load the driver files to play the sound.

Type "sound" into search in your start menu. Go to the "Sounds" tab and uncheck "Play Windows Startup sound".
 
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Already done that, eset provides all my virus protection anyway so when I start up I only have those programs enabled, rocket dock i'll keep as its basically a mac toolbar for wnidows, I've already disabled windows start up sound, any other ideas?
 
You have to remember that laptops come with a 5400 RPM Drive to keep heat down to a minimum. Therefor you will not be able to reach the boot times of others cause your drive is slower. I know that my Vista boots up in just over 30 seconds but i also have a 7200 RPM Drive with 32MB Cache on the drive.

From what i see it has a SATA Drive in there so the interface isnt going to slow you down. But the speed of the drive will. they do not mention on the Acer UK site if it is a 5400 RPM or 7200 RPM drive. But i would be willing to bet that it is 5400 RPM since that is the most common drive used unless it is a gaming laptop or a SSD.

So there may not be much you could do other than add some more RAM.
 
You have to remember that laptops come with a 5400 RPM Drive to keep heat down to a minimum. Therefor you will not be able to reach the boot times of others cause your drive is slower. I know that my Vista boots up in just over 30 seconds but i also have a 7200 RPM Drive with 32MB Cache on the drive.

From what i see it has a SATA Drive in there so the interface isnt going to slow you down. But the speed of the drive will. they do not mention on the Acer UK site if it is a 5400 RPM or 7200 RPM drive. But i would be willing to bet that it is 5400 RPM since that is the most common drive used unless it is a gaming laptop or a SSD.

So there may not be much you could do other than add some more RAM.

I'd forgotten about this thread! Yeah I purchased 2x 2GB DDR2 RAM and installed it but surprisingly boot time is even longer!!! But once its booted up, everything is definitely a lot speedier when opening programs etc
 
It may be slow when you first install the memory. More memory can sometimes slow things down, but you shouldn't be getting really slow boots after the first time. Alex is right about the 5400rpm limitation, but you can make sure you're getting the fullest of its capabilities by tweaking preformance settings in the BIOS.

If more memory continues to hold you back, perhaps it is best you put it back down to how much it had and adjust the paging file size instead.
 
You have to give Vista time to learn what programs you run and what it will store with SuperFetch. It is done differently than Pre-Fetch was done in XP.
 
It may be slow when you first install the memory. More memory can sometimes slow things down, but you shouldn't be getting really slow boots after the first time. Alex is right about the 5400rpm limitation, but you can make sure you're getting the fullest of its capabilities by tweaking preformance settings in the BIOS.

If more memory continues to hold you back, perhaps it is best you put it back down to how much it had and adjust the paging file size instead.
Any recommended guides or settings because i don't have a clue
 
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