How to Make Your Computer Start Up Quickly

Personally I love waiting fifteen minutes while my computer starts up. It's an excellent opportunity for bonding - just you and the black screen. But if you prefer to actually start working before the thoughts of violence creep in, cleaning up your computer's Startup is a sure-fire way to shave off some of that "bonding time".

Every time your computer starts, it loads a batch of programs. Some of these programs are needed for the computer to run, but most have slipped themselves into your auto-loading queue so that they can accost you every time you start up your computer. Messenger programs are notorious for this, but there are many other programs that will automatically invite themselves into your Startup. And let's face it: nobody likes an uninvited guest.

But before you start getting trigger-happy and exterminating programs left and right, you need to give yourself a safety net.

Go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System restore.

If you've never seen this screen before, that's probably a good thing. System Restore is basically a shield to protect against the inevitable mistakes we humans tend to make. While it automatically creates restore points, usually when a new program is installed, it's beneficial to create your own restore point before altering anything on your computer. If in the event you do make a mistake, you can go back to System Restore and return your computer to a restore point.

So select Create a Restore Point, then name your point. You can name it anything you like, but naming it something relevant will help you should you suddenly suffer a nasty bout of short-term memory loss 10 minutes from now.

Now it's time to get your hands dirty.

Go to Start > Run > msconfig

Msconfig is a configuration utility with several different tabs, but right now we're just going to look at the Startup tab, so click over there. When you examine your Startup it probably looks fairly cryptic. The first thing you need to do is go through and look for programs you can identify by name. For example, ypager is obviously Yahoo's messenger service. Find these, and perform a truthful evaluation. Ask yourself the following question:

Do I need this program running constantly?

Because not only does Startup auto-load the programs each time your computer restarts, but it also keeps them running in the background. And the more programs you have running, the less memory you're allocating to your main task. Unless the program needs to make continuous updates, chances are you can live with it being closed until you need it. Click the check box next to each item you want to remove, and the check should disappear. Go ahead and click on Apply.

Now it's time to tackle the more cryptic of the bunch. At the top you can see the titles for each column - Startup Item, Command, and Location. You should also see small dividers between them. Mouse over the divider after Command, and drag it to the right. This will expand the Command field so you can actually see the path.

Command shows you what Windows is actually going to run at startup for each program selected. The name of the executable file isn't really important, though it might give you a better clue than the Startup Item name. What we're looking for, though, is the path of the command file. Using this, you'll generally be able to find out which program it's running, and you can again decide which programs you want to keep running and which you don't.

If there are still programs you can't identify, type their Startup Item name, or the name of the executable file (name.exe) into Google and see if there are explanations of the file. Many databases exist for just this thing, and if you haven't cleaned up your computer in a long time, it's likely that some of the items are spyware.

Once you've unchecked all of the files you want to remove from Startup, make sure your other programs are closed and reboot your computer. You should notice an immediate (and hopefully significant!) change in the time it takes for your computer to start. Unfortunately, it means you've now lost those precious minutes of bonding time, but somehow I think you'll manage.