How To Make WIndows Boot Up Faster

You've been there, done that. You have something that you urgently need to do on your computer but it's switched off. You growl. You're in for a long wait whilst Windows decides what it needs to do to get your computer to run. I mean, it's not like it's got other things to do.

So how can you make your Windows PC boot up quicker?

It seems like the older your PC is, the more time it takes for it to boot up and start running. You begin to think that Microsoft has shares in your energy company as they appear to want you to leave your computer running 24 hours a day.

Fortunately, there are some things you can do to reduce the time it takes your computer to run through its boot sequence.

Windows checks anything that automatically runs as soon as you start your computer.Naturally that includes the version of Windows you're running. Plus all the other software that absolutely must run on your system. Your instant messenger program. Apple's iTunes music program. Your anti-virus software. Maybe a spyware checker. Skype so you can make cheap phone calls. Anything and everything you might need. In case anything's changed since you closed your PC, Windows will go off and check all these programs that run when it starts up.

It is possible to discover what these programs are. But you need to be a bit cautious - whilst you may not recognize a program by name, that doesn't mean you can safely remove it. Some essential Windows services that run in the background have names you wouldn't begin to guess at. But removing them, you'll be in trouble. If you're in any doubt about a start-up program, play safe and leave it be. It's not worth shaving off a few seconds on boot up only to have a PC that refuses to work at all. So it's probably worth leaving this to your friendly techie.

The next thing you can do is clean up the Windows registry. This is the part of Windows that holds all sorts of information about your computer. Most of it is necessary. But removing or upgrading programs can leave debris in the registry. This causes your PC to slow down. Occasionally it could even crash your computer altogether.

The easiest way to clean the registry is to run a special piece of software called (surprisingly enough) a registry checker. This will scan through the Windows registry, looking for errors, inconsistencies and out of date information. After the scan, you'll get a simple report and the program can be allowed to go off and correct the errors it's found. This is probably the simplest thing you can do to speed up your PC. Personally, I let Error Sweeper run every night to find and fix registry errors.

Check here for more ways to speed up your Windows boot time.