You might notice that the boot time of your PC worsens with time. This is because as you use the PC, programs, applications, drivers, etc. get installed and uninstalled, and some might have left their footprint behind. Other issues, such as your hardware being unable to keep up with current program requirements, could also be the issue. Well, whatever the reason, you would want to optimize your PC so that you can have it boot faster, wouldn’t you? Precisely for this reason, we have this detailed guide below for you that outlines various reasons why your PC might be slower to boot and how to remedy them.
Methods to Make Your PC Boot Faster
Addressing the obvious, your PC will boot faster with better hardware. Thus, if your PC has components a few generations old, upgrading those components can show a marked improvement in your boot time. Components like the CPU and RAM need to be able to address the requirements of the current generation operating system and software you have installed. Otherwise, your PC will naturally struggle to boot faster. Another important hardware component that can work wonders on your boot time is installing your OS on an SSD. Unlike traditional mechanical HDDs, SSDs are much faster. They have very low latency and a high data transfer rate, meaning your load-up time will be significantly reduced. However, considering that your hardware is up-to-date, or even with your current hardware, you can perform a few software tweaks to squeeze a bit more performance out of what you currently have and let your machine boot faster. So without further ado, let’s dive deeper.
Enable Windows’ Fast Startup Mode
Fast startup is a hybrid shutdown-hibernate feature built into Windows that allows you to quickly boot your PC after having it shut down. Although it comes pre-enabled in modern Windows PCs, it might have been disabled for some reason. Enabling fast startup should give you a significant performance advantage over cold boot when starting your Windows PC. To enable fast startup, please follow these steps:
Enable Fast Boot
Fast boot is a feature of UEFI firmware that lets the computer skip performing POST on some non-critical hardwares. Thus, the firmware handles control over to your OS earlier, reducing boot time. As such, if your device is UEFI enabled, you can see if fast boot is enabled. If it isn’t, you should enable it to get a faster boot time. Please note that Fast Boot is not available in Legacy BIOS mode.
Disable Startup for Unnecessary Programs
When you install a program, some programs will configure Windows to allow it to run at startup without you knowing it. Regardless of whether these programs actually need to run at startup, they use up resources, and your boot process won’t be complete and ready until they have all loaded up. Thus, you can see what programs have been configured to launch at startup and disable any program that you deem unnecessary.
Turn Off Windows Features
Windows features that are enabled get loaded into memory when you boot your computer. Therefore, you can improve boot time by turning off unwanted Windows features.
Run an Antivirus Scan
A virus or malware that has infected your system generally hijacks system processes as well as uses up valuable system resources. They also multiply, and you will eventually start to feel the effects on your system. Most such viruses and malware are also configure to run themselves at startup and perform other nefarious activities, which can bring your booting process to a crawl. As such, update your antivirus and anti-malware software to their latest antivirus definition and run a system scan to locate and remove any unwanted malware that might have installed themselves on your system. If you have a different preferred antivirus software, you can use its full scan option instead.
Enable No GUI Boot
This might feel like pinching a penny, but it works. Enabling No GUI boot rids you of the floating Windows logo and loading bar during Windows startup. Users have reported that having this enabled saved them a few seconds of Windows load time. Be aware though, that if you have No GUI boot enabled, you will only see a blank screen during Windows boot, and you won’t be able to tell if your system froze during that time. Follow the steps below to enable No GUI Boot:
Run Disk Defragmenter on HDD
Files and data get written and deleted from your storage all the time. Over a long period, as large chunks of files get written, the pieces of data that are written on the disk get scattered depending upon the availability of a physical medium with free space. This is called fragmentation of the hard drive. If you have a mechanical hard drive, data fragmentation causes an increase in seek times. This, in effect, causes your system to slow down visibly. This can also impact your boot time. As such, if you have a mechanical hard drive, you should run disk defragmenter to improve your overall system performance. However, SSDs are virtually immune to the effects of defragmentation and, as such, provide no benefit to running disk defragmenter. In fact, it is advised that you should not run the defragmenter on an SSD. To run disk defragmenter: The disk defragmenter can take anywhere from minutes to hours, depending upon the state of fragmentation of your hard drive.
Turn on Adjust for Best Performance
If your system is a few generations older, it might struggle to render all the visual eye candies that the Windows GUI comes enabled by default. This is especially true if you have an older GPU with a lot of icons on your desktop. As such, you can configure Windows settings to adjust for the best performance. This will turn down the quality of visual effects and animations. In return, you get a better performance and boot time out of your system.
Clean the Registry
The system registry is a database that contains information on services, drivers, and applications that load during boot-up. Over time, as various programs are installed and uninstalled, some programs might leave behind their registry footprints without cleaning them. This causes the registry to ballon up with useless information and might cause unnecessarily long boot times. You can remedy this by manually cleaning the registry. Remember to back up the registry before making any changes to it. You’d need a third-party registry cleaning tool, such as CCleaner, to help you with this task.
Use Sleep Mode
If you follow the fixes outlined above, you will surely be able to cut down on your Windows boot time by more than a few seconds. However, it is possible that you cannot apply the fixes outlined above currently, but still want a super fast boot time. In such case, you can simply put your computer to sleep mode instead of shutting it down. Sleep mode saves your current session, including the Windows kernel, drivers, user sessions, and any open applications in the memory and the system enters a low-power mode until user input is detected. At this point, it can resume where you left off. You will find the option for Sleep mode on the power settings, where you also find options to Shut down and Restart the computer. However, if for some reason you cannot find it there, then might need to enable sleep mode first.
