What Takes It So Long to Start Up? (XP Home SR-1)

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I did a full restore of Windows XP about a week ago (including the latest upgrades, patches, etc., etc. from Microsoft) and am already finding it really slow on startup – after the desktop appears it sits there for several minutes (at least) grinding away doing who-knows-what. I do have several start-up tasks (e.g., Norton Anti-Virus) but nothing that should take so long to load.

Is there some clever utility out there that “watches” startup tasks and tells you which ones are loading and how long each is taking? If I knew what things were taking so long and if they were “optional” then I could get rid of them.

Thanks.

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Also: after reinstalling, did you perform clean-up and defragmenting?

To check your drive for errors, click Start | Run, type: CHKDSK /F click OK and reboot when prompted.
To clean up your hard drive, click Start | Run, type: CLEANMGR click OK and follow the wizard.
To defragment your hard drive, click Start | Run, type: DFRG.MSC and click OK.

Last two programs you can also find in Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools menu.

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(Edited by Leif to make link live – see the quick guide)

Yes there is. Microsoft provides a tool called Bootvis. It does just what you are looking for. Check out this PC Mag article with a link to MS.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,887763,00.asp%5B/url%5D

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Thanks to all for your suggestions! bootvis.exe indicates that Norton’s symevent.sys and npdriver.sys are really hogging the system during boot-up. Has anyone else noticed this. Can they be turned off (or turned “down”) and still have virus protection?

Thanks again.

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It is going to take time for ANY AV to load and do the fire up virus check. You are NOT going to get the speed you want and the protection that you NEED.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Yeah, I guess it’s kinda like the security checks at airports these days…

I’ll do a little housekeeping with my startup tasks and do a little defragging as you suggest and live with what I get.

Thanks.

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Of course, getting the heck away from Norton and McAfee products, both of which are total resource hogs, would certainly help as well. Search the Lounge for multitudes of posts on recommended alternatives, but I favour Trend Micro’s PC-Cillin – way less resource-hungry and just as (and some argue more) effective than the Big Two Clock Cycle Eaters.

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Don’t worry, Dawg, the truth will set them free.

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I have tried PC-Cillin on several machines and did NOT like it, it was slower that NAV. But it is a lot better than that McAffee thing.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Cowboy,
There are three free (for personal use) anti-virus programs that seem to be pretty good – AVG Avast & Anti-vir. I’m using Avast at home. Seems to be OK. Not excessive overhead or system takeover like NAV.

Joe

--Joe

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And my vote goes to Antivir, since it’s kept my PC clean for the last few years, without getting in the way. But I keep an occasional eye on the others in case they come up with something to tempt me.

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