Some quick tips to speed up Windows XP startup
There are a ton of cool little tweaks that can get Windows XP running alot faster than it is right now. A fresh install is generally fairly fast, but over time it gets bogged down with all kinds of software, adware, spyware, registry entries and other junk. So lets look at some quick ways to get more speed without doing a re-install.
Speed Up Windows XP Startup
If your system is anything like mine, it has a ton of useless software installed and startup can take forever. Well there are luckily two little tweaks that can dramatically increase startup/bootup times on XP.
1) This is a powerful little tool that allows you to control items that load during startup. Click start->run, then type in msconfig, click ok
2) Click on the startup tab and then select the programs you don’t want to run on startup. Be careful here. We recommend doing only 1 or 2 at a time, and only select programs that you know. As you can see, i have turned off Skype during startup.
3) After you are done, click ok. After reboot you will get a message saying that startup items have changed. You can just ignore that.
Cleaning up the Startup Folder
Windows XP also has a startup folder in your profile and cleaning this up is another tweak that should see some increased performance.
The startup folder contains a bunch of shortcuts that run on startup. They are only shortcuts, so you won’t be removing the actual program. It just wont start on startup every time.
Goto:
c:\Documents and Settings\username\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
note: username will be your Windows XP username.
Once you are in the correct location, remove shortcuts for any programs that you dont want to run on startup.
You can also set this up automatically with Regcure. Get a free download and scan here
Related Articles:
Speed Up Windows XP Shutdown
