Bootvis: Speed Up Your Boot Time

Bootvis is a program made specifically for checking and optimizing how long a users computer takes to boot up to a usable state. That measure of time is commonly referred to as the computer's boot time. In most cases Bootvis can improve the computer's boot time considerably as well as boosting other important performance factors in Windows XP. Currently there is no program like Bootvis for Windows Vista and it is unlikely that there ever will be.

Bootvis began as a Microsoft product, but it is no longer an official Windows XP program. Although it isn't officially a Microsoft program you can still easily download and run the program with the same benefits users have experienced since Bootvis first released. Microsoft's original goal with Bootvis was to improve the typical computer boot time to approximately 30 seconds under normal conditions. Microsoft also hoped that they could optimize a computer to resume from hibernate in 20 seconds, and resume from standby in 5 seconds. In most cases these times are entirely possible and with some help from Bootvis they are generally achieved.

Bootvis was and still is meant to be a performance tracing and diagnosis tool but it can also be used to help performance. Microsoft says "Bootvis.exe cannot reduce or alter a system's boot or resume performance. The boot optimization routines invoked by Bootvis.exe are built into Windows XP." Basically what they are saying is that Bootvis doesn't actually change anything, rather it forces XP to improve it's speed. Through these optimization routines Bootvis can dramatically improve a computer's boot time and performance.

Overall Bootvis is a great program. Bootvis is easy to install and even easier to run and use. Simply click "Trace" then any of the options, depending on what you want to optimize. Your computer will then restart and upon startup Bootvis will show you the results of the test. Next you can click "Optimize" and Bootvis will again restart your computer but this time it will attempt to improve XP performance. After your computer starts up don't click anything until Bootvis opens and shows a window telling you what it is doing. If Bootvis asks to restart again it is better to let it restart again so it can optimize performance better. After that your computer should startup and shutdown faster, as well as resume from hibernate and standby if you run optimization on those also.