What Prompts Agonizingly Slow Windows Startup

My computer has fairly fast windows startup, around 60-70 seconds most of the time. Sure that is not newsworthy but many of my friends (the ones who won't follow my advice) tell me that their computers take as long as five minutes to start. To me that seems crazy, but I know it is more common than microsoft would like to admit. What triggers the computer to take so long booting up and what can be done to fix it? These are two very good questions and the answers are actually pretty straight forward.

Firstly, what triggers the computer to boot so slow? There are a number of things that contribute to the problem. Each one of them individualy puts a little bit more overhead to the process, so addressing only one of the offenders will help a little and each additional area addressed helps a little more. The number one cause of slow boot times are startup programs, windows prefetch, temporary files, clogged registry, hard drive fragmentation, low memory, and malware. I will address each of these issues in turn.

Startup programs are exactly what the name says, programs that are set to fire up every time you start your computer. Most of these are not required and definitely not desirable. You can find excellent free tools to seek out and stop these programs very easily. A favorite of mine is the startup tool in CCLeaner. Google it and download, it will help.

Lack of memory is another familiar problem. Many of the computers you purchase these days do not come loaded with the largest amount of memory they can handle. Do some research on your computer to learn how much you currently have installed and how much your computer can run. Then go buy what you need to bring it up to max. This is one of the least expensive things you can do and yet it gives some of the biggest performance gains.

Temporary files, this one cracks me up because windows keeps your temporary files around forever if you dont get rid of them yourself. Those seem more like permanent files to me. A simple fix here though is to use a tool you already downloaded, CCleaner. The default function of this tool is to delete temporary files off your computer.

A clogged registry can greatly slow your computer down. The registry though is a very vital piece of your operating system and changes here should be managed with extreme caution. You can buy or download free registry cleaners, but I would leave registry alterations to trained proffessionals.

Hard drive fragmentation is pretty common and is a huge contributer to lengthy boot times. Download and install Smart Defrag. A very good free utility.

Malware, which encompasses all types of malicious software from Spyware to Viruses and everything in between, are another primary cause of lengthy boot times.

Windows prefetch is a folder that keeps files pertaining to your settings of many programs. Over time these files become outdated and filled with useless and erronious information. You should remove the contents of this folder if you have a slow windows startup problem. This is an easy manual process.