Surefire Tips for Faster Boot Time

"Time is gold" - although a bit cliché, this really holds true in a fast paced world like ours. One might argue that patience is a virtue; however, in a generation where a lot of things can be done instantly, this saying is really out of context. A few minutes of delay-no matter how short-is still a time lost that could have been put to better use. Indeed, people of the modern and industrialized world tend to be less patient than their ancestors. To a busy office worker, there's nothing more annoying than a computer which takes ages to boot. So to help reduce your stress, here are some tips that are sure to give you a faster boot time.

The most common solution for the aforementioned problem involves some tweaks in your computer's settings. As such, one should be very careful when doing these since a little mistake could cause more problems.

Configure your "BIOS"

The Basic Input/ Output System or better known as BIOS is a software common to all PCs. This is really essential to all computers since this software is responsible for initializing and testing the system's hardware components and loading the computer's operating system (OS) from the hard disk. Booting usually takes some time because of the said tests that are run before the OS is loaded.

However, if you're sure that your hardware components are running perfectly, there's no need to do such tests. Instead, you can just tweak the BIOS so that it loads the operating system immediately once you open it. In order to do this, first shut down or hibernate your computer. As soon as the screen loads, press the suggested key to enter the BIOS screen (usually this is "DEL, F2 or F10"). Once this is done, navigate to the "Quick Boot" option and move hard disk to the top of the boot list. By doing this, you are telling the computer to load the OS immediately and not look for other components such as the CD drive and the Universal Serial Bus (USB). After this, navigate to the Exit option then select Save Changes. But on rare occasions where you need to boot from a CD or flash drive, you need to enter the BIOS screen again and edit the boot priority list before startup.

Configure programs that launch at startup

Usually, once the computer starts up, it runs a set of predefined programs-some of which you don't really need. To save time, you can edit the settings such that upon startup, it only loads the programs that are essential to you. To do this, click on the Start button and type "Run" in the search bar. Open the Run program and type msconfig then press enter. This command will open the System Configuration Utility. Select the Startup tab in the said utility and uncheck all the programs that you don't usually use. However, be careful about this since you might uncheck some programs that are needed to make the computer run properly. Once you are done, click OK and reboot your computer.

Configure Windows Services that run at startup

Contrary to popular belief, removing certain Windows services using the System Configuration Utility actually causes more harm to your computer rather than improving your boot time. But you can still save time by delaying some services that aren't needed upon startup rather than completely removing them. To do that, click on the Start button and type "Run". Then type the command services.msc and a list of Windows services will appear. Right click on the service that you want to delay and click Properties. On the Properties window, you will find a dropdown list labeled as "Startup Type" and then select Automatic (Delayed Start).

Remove unused fonts

The amount of fonts installed in your computer also affects the amount of time that your computer needs to load. This is because once Windows starts, your system has to load all the installed fonts; therefore the more fonts you have, the more time it takes for the system to load. In order to improve this, you can just delete the fonts that you don't normally use. This can be done by clicking on the Start button and selecting Control Panel. Click on "Appearance" and open the Fonts folder. There you can find the fonts that are installed in your computer. Just click on the font that you don't use and click "Delete" in the options that appear at the top of the list. The computer can work just fine with 1,000 installed fonts. However, it is recommended to have only 300-500 fonts. But be careful because fonts such as Trebuchet, Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Times New Roman, Courier New, and MS Sans Serif are needed by your system and should be kept.