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Computer Startup Time – Current Problems, Future Advancements, and Solutions You Can Consider For Now

The vast amount of resources a modern operating system requires, and the speed limitations of hard drives, processors, and other hardware aren’t appealing to users. Solid state drives are a possible solution, but remember that there are always new software advancements, too. As hardware advancements are being made, operating systems are also becoming more resource-crunching, we might have a lot of trouble dealing with operating system startup issues in the future.

Future Innovations and Advancements

Computer startup times have been a frustrating issue for many computer users. The bad news is that there hasn’t been a method to completely elimate the wait time during computer startup, but the good news is many computer manufacturers are finding solutions to this dilemma. Microsoft’s Windows Vista has been said to be a huge blunder in computing technology and has been one of the primary targets in Apple’s “Get a Mac” advertising campaign (Makes me wonder how they will target Windows 7 in the future). Windows 7 is said by many to be a vast improvement over Windows Vista, most notably in terms of performance, and one of the apparent things Microsoft has tacked is startup time. It’s finally about time, after decades of computing technology, that we are finding ways to cure startup issues.

A leading BIOS manufacturer, Phoenix BIOS has shaved the POST time to about a second. But that doesn’t really affect the time it takes your Windows operating system to start up. The American-based Chinese computer manufacturer Lenovo has tackled Windows starting times by taking advantage of Microsoft’s newest innovation; Windows 7. They have added the “Enhanced Experience” to many of their newer products, which claims they can slim down Windows 7 boot times by a whopping 56% times faster than XP or Vista. Such computers that have been optimized for this purpose will bear a sexy Windows 7 logo and a “Lenovo Enhanced Experience” sticker.

What You Can Do For Now

Remember it takes a while for us to invent an “instantly ready” computer system. Meanwhile, you can do many things to your computer that will chop your starting time down. All these features will work on modern operating systems, and will make a big impact no matter what your system specifications are.

1. Remove all unnecessary programs that start up when your computer starts up. There are many ways to do this and many tutorials on how to accomplish this. For example, on Windows go to Start > Run > msconfig and you will be presented with a list of services for you to disable. Make sure you are disabling unnecessary services, otherwise your computer will boot in safe mode because some essential services could not be started. You can do a web search of some necessary processes that you can remove (such as search indexing). When installing programs, remove the option to start up when your computer starts.
2. Do a complete scan of your computer for malware – viruses, adware, spyware, all need to be gone. Update your antivirus software frequently (turn on automatic updates if the feature is available).
3. Perform a disk defragmentation, disk cleanup, and remove all temporary files your browser stores.
4. Use the standby or hibernate mode on your computer. Standby uses minimal power (on desktops they use the +5 volt stand by) to suspend the memory to RAM (because RAM is volatile memory – it requires power to maintain stored information). Hibernate saves your session to your disk, and allows you to completely turn off your computer and/or unplug the power from your computer. When you turn on your computer, your session is resumed instantly (for stand-by) or after a while for hibernate because your computer has to load the data from the hard drive to the RAM.
5. Tweak your visual settings for performance. On Windows, right click My Computer, click the advanced tab, and click “Performance.” Remove the boxes out of some unnecessary features you don’t need. I leave Animate Windows, Show Window Contents While Dragging, Smooth Edges of Screen Fonts, Use Drop Shadows for Icon Labels on the Desktop, and Use Visual Styles On Windows and Buttons.

End Notes and Conclusion

There is a wealth of information on the internet, and it should be one of your sources for obtaining information on virtually any computer subject. There are rapid advancements in computers and one day, who knows – computers will have instant startup along with ease of use so everyone can use a computer and take advantage of its many features.

This content is written by Neon Zidane. The author accepts no liability whatsoever for the validity, accuracy, completeness, or quality of the content provided. Liability claims against the author relating to material or non-material damages, caused by the use or misuse of the information provided, or by the use of flawed or incomplete information are basically excluded. The author expressly reserves the right to modify, supplement, delete parts of this information or the without separate notification, or to end the publication in part of finally.

Tags: BIOS, boot times, computer boot time, computer startup time, Windows 7, Windows Vista