Decrease Computer Boot Time - System Configuration [Tutorial]

[AceInfinity]

No problem, I'd figure some people found it useful since this is a collaboration of the most basic things people should know for their computer. I have more advanced methods in mind, and some i've hinted at within this thread, but it's up to you whether to use them or not, unless you don't know what you're doing. Specifically the BIOS method I mentioned later on in the first page of replies.

[Bigandrewgold]

thanks for this tutorial, I will be doing this on my laptop sometime soon

[Tunasty™]

I already knew this but thanks a lot for the tutorial.

[Quintus]

A really nice guide, except for this point:

I would recommend that you keep your registry clean, get a registry cleaner, and always make registry backups. I highly, recommend "CCleaner" as it's one of the best registry cleaners out there, and it's free. It will also clear internet data for you if you run it for that.

Registry cleaners are bogus. You do not need to "clean the Registry" if you do not perform searches in it. The only thing these cleaners will speed up, that is if they do work, is the searching time. An example is when you uninstall a program. They leave traces behind. I can guarantee those things, even when left alone, will not affect a system's performance.

[AceInfinity]

No no, do some research, the registry is used for pretty much everything on your computer. It's not just a "settings" location for all of your programs. And if there is clutter in there, it would be the same thing as searching through your registry manually or when the computer itself needs to look for something to find out how to execute something. The more clutter you have the longer it will take to do that, and it will slow down computer performance.

Don't use the word guarantee next time. There's proof in the fact that even average computer users will notice a computer slow down after time because they have a cluttered registry. If you wanted to do an experiment, keep your hard drive in top shape by doing defrag every once in a while, clear all of your temp files, do disk cleanups... All on a new computer from the start, and after a while you'll still notice a slowdown. The fact being that the culprit here is a cluttered registry. I studied this stuff in school a while back taking courses in computer engineering.

Using a registry cleaner will also provide a backup option for you. The registry cleaner basically just removes any unused registry files and keys and cleans the registry of errors. The way it does that is it looks for a location for some of the files, and if it's non existent, then it will remove the registry value. If your worried about a screw up then use the restore feature to create a restore point in addition to a backup. Save your backups in the C:\ drive though for easy access to merging it into your computer if it does mess up and you can't get into your computer because of a change the program made. You should be able to do this with the system recovery option of cmd.

[Quintus]

No no, do some research, the registry is used for pretty much everything on your computer. It's not just a "settings" location for all of your programs.

I always do research before I post, and none of them are my personal opinion, unless of course stated otherwise. I am not removing the fact of how important the Registry is -- part of my training taught me a great deal of how it works and why is it very crucial in a system. I can also say I am quite familiar with it, however that is not the point. I do not know where you got the "settings" implication.

And if there is clutter in there, it would be the same thing as searching through your registry manually or when the computer itself needs to look for something to find out how to execute something. The more clutter you have the longer it will take to do that, and it will slow down computer performance.

Now, that, is where the debate should be...

Professionals I have encountered claim that that is not the case. "Speeding up" would and can only refer to the searching time you do via the Registry Editor. About the computer executing something, it does not affect the performance simply because the Registry is made in a way that your system will only look at a specific "path". You are aware of the five specific components, yes? Also, no one exactly knows what "clutter" can mean for a system. A definition could be invalid or null entries, but knowing the fact that these do not even have values, gives the question: Does it even bother the system at all?

The only program I would trust is ERUNT. I understand this is quite late in terms of the date, however the points are still valid for obvious reasons.

Don't use the word guarantee next time. There's proof in the fact that even average computer users will notice a computer slow down after time because they have a cluttered registry

That could mean different things. Where is the proof? Even statistics would help. I would like to know if the people using these products actually do know what is being removed from their system. As far as I am concerned, the Registry practically has control of everything. I can name a lot of unneeded services, that when disabled will speed up a system. I can say it counts as "Registry clutters" to an extent. I would like to see proof of how "void" entries in the Registry, when removed, sped up a system.

If you wanted to do an experiment, keep your hard drive in top shape by doing defrag every once in a while, clear all of your temp files, do disk cleanups... All on a new computer from the start, and after a while you'll still notice a slowdown. The fact being that the culprit here is a cluttered registry. I studied this stuff in school a while back taking courses in computer engineering.

A user already did that here. I suggest you read it. The people who did the researches aren't amateurs either. They are credited Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs), and some of them are the creators of today's known analysis tools. Personally, I will not take their words as untruthful and baseless, they being recognized by Microsoft itself.

On a personal note, I never did a defragmentation (both file and Registry) and only temporary files cleaning. The system I have is over six years old, and I have not experienced slowdowns. I would like to do a test wherein I'll use a Registry cleaner and see if it does do wonders.

Using a registry cleaner will also provide a backup option for you.

Registry cleaners are not the only things that can backup the Registry. ERUNT is one. The Registry Editor can also do that.

The registry cleaner basically just removes any unused registry files and keys and cleans the registry of errors. The way it does that is it looks for a location for some of the files, and if it's non existent, then it will remove the registry value.

That is the most controversial point. How exactly do these programs know, 100% of the time, what should be removed or not? Also, missing values and unused keys won't typically give you any errors. The most likely scenario I can think of (when it does give you an error), is a Registry key associated with an active program. No doubt it will complain if some file went missing. But for an uninstalled program? I have yet to see such a case. An example is a file at startup... Set a file to run at startup (via adding a key) and delete it. That then, leaves the key empty and unused, correct? When it boots up and finds that the file is missing, it will not give you an error.

If your worried about a screw up then use the restore feature to create a restore point in addition to a backup. Save your backups in the C:\ drive though for easy access to merging it into your computer if it does mess up and you can't get into your computer because of a change the program made. You should be able to do this with the system recovery option of cmd.

I do not have anything to argue with this point.

[AceInfinity]

I always do research before I post, and none of them are my personal opinion, unless of course stated otherwise. I am not removing the fact of how important the Registry is -- part of my training taught me a great deal of how it works and why is it very crucial in a system. I can also say I am quite familiar with it, however that is not the point. Tongue I do not know where you got the "settings" implication.

You didn't know that the registry could be used to disable the task manager? Thats what I mean by settings, 1 and 0 for values.

Professionals I have encountered claim that that is not the case. "Speeding up" would and can only refer to the searching time you do via the Registry Editor. About the computer executing something, it does not affect the performance simply because the Registry is made in a way that your system will only look at a specific "path". You are aware of the five specific components, yes? Also, no one exactly knows what "clutter" can mean for a system. A definition could be invalid or null entries, but knowing the fact that these do not even have values, gives the question: Does it even bother the system at all?

Most computer performance tests are actually started by the developers of registry-cleaning tools. A registry has thousands of entries, all of which even though the files are small still have to take up space somewhere, being on your hard drive. When a program gets uninstalled it's not completely uninstalled, and that location is still left behind pointing to a location that doesn't exist, or to a program that got moved. Newer registry files are created all the time, and as it fills up it will decrease computer performance, and even boot time, since memory tests and registry files are searched for before the computer even gets to log in. The problem here is that Windows itself almost never removes registry entries, so over time that will accumulate.

The performance increase doesn't happen with every registry cleanup you do because sometimes it doesn't need to clean up the areas of the registry that would affect performance on your computer. For example, drivers on your computer, have registry files that act as a configuration for how they are defined. If you uninstall a driver, previous settings can still be left behind within a registry key or subkey. If you go to install that driver again on your system or another driver, those values can be confused with one another, and your registry will act like a brain that tries to figure out which value is used for what. And that "problem solving" it does, takes time. The registry doesn't always look for a "path" on the system simply because other registry keys and values can be added on to determine how other things work within the system. It will look through a key to determine what "settings" are supposed to be loaded. And some keys can have over a hundred different values that it will have to look through. If there's anything left behind from previous versions of a file/program/whatever it will have to solve conflicts, and not use a value everytime it's called for, or the value has data or information that isn't supported for what it's supposed to do because the file/program that it's executing wasn't the original that the registry file was created for.

I'm not saying that registry file cleaners aren't flawless, because the registry is a fairly complex thing. Mistakes can be made, but you'd have a better chance of messing up the registry by manually removing different keys and values. Windows isn't going to clean it's "clutter" up for you like I mentioned before, and that's how it would affect performance. It's also the reason why people don't notice a "speedup" whether it's minor or significant, every time they try or use a registry cleaner. However it can save you from times of freezing up or becoming unresponsive for those reasons as well mentioned above.

There's always flaws in a system, so the registry isn't perfect. One of the main reasons why I consider a registry cleaner. You need a reputable program to do it though.

That could mean different things. Where is the proof? Even statistics would help. I would like to know if the people using these products actually do know what is being removed from their system. As far as I am concerned, the Registry practically has control of everything. I can name a lot of unneeded services, that when disabled will speed up a system. I can say it counts as "Registry clutters" to an extent. I would like to see proof of how "void" entries in the Registry, when removed, sped up a system.

There's registry programs that tell you what is being removed in a list view for you to confirm. If you are a good computer user you'd likely take a look through the list given. The debate here is disregarding any facts that most people won't do that because that's irrelevant to a registry cleaners job. The computer user himself/herself also has a job to make sure that the computer is being maintained.

The registry does have control of everything, but it isn't perfect. Windows doesn't remove hardly any values for you. It's like a kid that goes to make a peanut butter sandwich in the kitchen and forgets to do the dishes after. The registry cleaner could be related to the dishwasher. Sometimes the food on some plates, doesn't come off and most of the time it does.

A user already did that here. I suggest you read it. The people who did the researches aren't amateurs either. They are credited Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs), and some of them are the creators of today's known analysis tools. Personally, I will not take their words as untruthful and baseless, they being recognized by Microsoft itself.

On a personal note, I never did a defragmentation (both file and Registry) and only temporary files cleaning. The system I have is over six years old, and I have not experienced slowdowns. I would like to do a test wherein I'll use a Registry cleaner and see if it does do wonders.

You have to take into account that that piece of information was defined in 2008, and people were still developing programs to work more efficiently with the registry. Since then they have become more reliable and do a lot more than they used to with windows versions dating back to Windows 98 to around Windows 2k. At the time this was mentioned, Windows Vista has just came out.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/libra...51049.aspx

Registry cleaners are not the only things that can backup the Registry. ERUNT is one. The Registry Editor can also do that

But we're not comparing programs in this debate lol. A Registry cleaner will make a backup before it modifies/removes any information from it. I could make backups of my registry all day using the registry editor itself, but the registry is modified all the time, so it would be very unorthodox to do so.

That is the most controversial point. How exactly do these programs know, 100% of the time, what should be removed or not?

I won't claim that a registry editor is flawless. But even the Windows system itself is not flawless, and since values don't get deleted much by windows itself, errors that get created will stay as errors, and if not fixed, can potentially cause problems on your system. This isn't the case 100% of the time though, but even without modifying the registry Windows itself can screw it up for you.

Also, missing values and unused keys won't typically give you any errors

Missing values will give you errors more often than unused values. But if you try to reinstall a program/file that used to use that value, the value sometimes doesn't get replaced, and will become a conflict with newer values beside it, which is where the problem in that would start.

The most likely scenario I can think of (when it does give you an error), is a Registry key associated with an active program. No doubt it will complain if some file went missing. But for an uninstalled program? I have yet to see such a case. An example is a file at startup... Set a file to run at startup (via adding a key) and delete it. That then, leaves the key empty and unused, correct? When it boots up and finds that the file is missing, it will not give you an error.

An active program yes, but it will still take up a small amount of space in the registry. Even though hardly significant at all, if you keep your computer for a long time, if you want to free up a small bit of space then it's possible, even though I won't make this small statement a big part of my side of the debate. Keeping in mind that registry files aren't all used for programs, unused registry values for other things can lead to problems later on.

For that last part, it won't give you an error, but if you've set a whole bunch of startup programs, and then removed them, would it not have to search to see if those programs are set to startup when windows starts? Still takes a bit of time to look through that checklist, even though it won't give you an error because it's inactive.

To be completely honest, I usually go by reliable sources, but I do understand that the registry is a big debate, It just makes more sense to me to believe that the information in the database of the registry, if more organized, would cause less problems because of a result of a cleanup because it's still data left behind as a blueprint for your computer. There's even debates like this between reputable Microsoft developers, and newer developments of programs that are registry utilities change the sides of the debate constantly, and even in between operating systems for how the registry is used.

[Tha Sneak]

Registry cleaners do more harm that good. The registry is filled with settings and application configurations not file systems. Cleaning what registry cleaners clean won't speed up performance, but it will harm it causing it to run slower. There are a few orphaned entries that would be helpful to remove, but they won't affect performance. Windows will read the file doesn't exist and it will skip it on start up.

It is a helper's choice to remove orphaned entries or ComboFix will safely remove the ones that need be removed. Otherwise, registry cleaners should not be ran. The only thing that will speed up performance is removing cache and temp files. BootSpeed and CCleaner are good cleaners for that, but should never be used to clean the registry.

[AceInfinity]

Registry cleaners do more harm that good. The registry is filled with settings and application configurations not file systems. Cleaning what registry cleaners clean won't speed up performance, but it will harm it causing it to run slower.

What do you mean by file systems? they hold settings for file extensions. Be more specific on that. And you haven't provided any proof of why it should cause any harm in your post, even though it can, but it's been unlikely with my experience on registry cleaners. Also, you haven't supported the idea that it won't affect computer performance either, so that statement in my mind still lays as one of your opinions. Read through my post before this first, and then post again. I don't see that you've taken the time to read through Quintus' post either.

There are a few orphaned entries that would be helpful to remove, but they won't affect performance. Windows will read the file doesn't exist and it will skip it on start up.

But it has to read the file first to determine it's not in use so that 'skip' still takes up a little time.

It is a helper's choice to remove orphaned entries or ComboFix will safely remove the ones that need be removed. Otherwise, registry cleaners should not be ran.

If you're suggesting to use ComodoFix to clean the registry, is it not acting like a registry cleaner itself then? Only difference is that Registry cleaners have been specifically developed to carry out that task on a greater level.

The only thing that will speed up performance is removing cache and temp files. BootSpeed and CCleaner are good cleaners for that, but should never be used to clean the registry.

Wait... The only thing? Have you read through the first post to this thread?

[Tha Sneak]

What do you mean by file systems?

I am saying that the registry is not a file system so don't treat it as such.

They hold settings for file extensions. Be more specific on that.

Yes, the registry does, but that isn't what I was talking about. Registry cleaners do clean file extensions that are unused, but what happens when you actually do use that file extension? You don't have it anymore. Big mess up.

And you haven't provided any proof of why it should cause any harm in your post, even though it can, but it's been unlikely with my experience on registry cleaners.

You just said it causes harm? I see you are getting mine and Quintus's point. It doesn't matter how experienced you are. Not the average user knows anything about the Windows Registry.

Also, you haven't supported the idea that it won't affect computer performance either, so that statement in my mind still lays as one of your opinions.

Alright, it won't affect computer performance because I can add a ton of fake files and values and it won't noticeably affect speed at all.

Read through my post before this first, and then post again. I don't see that you've taken the time to read through Quintus' post either.

Read through it and I still stand that Registry Cleaners are damaging.

But it has to read the file first to determine it's not in use so that 'skip' still takes up a little time.

It takes about a microsecond to do that.

If you're suggesting to use ComodoFix to clean the registry, is it not acting like a registry cleaner itself then? Only difference is that Registry cleaners have been specifically developed to carry out that task on a greater level.

No, not ComodoFix. ComboFix. A expert security analyst tool. It has a feature where it will automatically clean orphaned start up entries when it is ran. These are the only orphaned registry entries that can safely be cleaned. It too will sometimes make mistakes & mess the OS up.

Wait... The only thing? Have you read through the first post to this thread?

Is that supposed to be relevant?