OK . . . somebody’s going to tell me I’m a liar, but I’m not – honest! I had startup issues with this computer for at least a year after buying it. Sometimes it would take over two minutes for this baby to start up. I tried everything. I tried decimating the startup menu, I tried shutting off irrelevant (so I thought) services, I tried messing with the BIOS, turning off the Windows splash screen – I tried everything. Nothing worked. I was about to scream. My buddy’s new computer started up quicker than anything (well, quicker than mine) and he didn’t do anything to it. I just didn’t understand it.
Then I discovered Bootvis. Some people say it doesn’t really do anything. Others wonder why Microsoft discontinued it long ago. Some say it can damage your system (so use at your own risk), but I say “thank you” to whoever came up with it. It truly solved my startup issues. Yes, I’m a bit obsessive. So what?
If you want to use Bootvis, make sure you’re running Windows XP first. Also, be sure your Task Scheduler service is set to automatic. Don’t ask why. It’s important though. Someone once told me to delete everything in the Windows Prefetch folder before running Bootvis, so go ahead and do it. It won’t hurt anything. Then, open Bootvis, click on “Trace,” then click “Next boot + driver delays” then wait. Bootvis will do its thing, reboot then system, then . . . then . . . then . . . well, expect a long pause (much longer than normal). It will say “Optimizing System” during this time. After it’s all done (just wait patiently) your system should (mine did) boot up much faster. If it doesn’t work, well, don’t blame me. If it blows up your system, again, don’t blame me.
But I’ve had great success with it.
This program is a miracle worker – my computer crashed one day out of nowhere and suddenly was taking 15 minutes to boot – wasn’t a matter of too much crap in my start-up, seemed to be a windows system issue, nonetheless it was literally taking 15 minutes or more from pressing power to being usable. So I downloaded, installed, and used bootvis – next time I turned on my computer it booted faster than the day I bought the computer and has continued to to do so ever since.