I still use Windows XP on my Dell E520 although I haven’t been a serious, or even a frivolous, Windows user for many years now. However, one thing I always liked to do in Windows is to minimize the number of start-up programs seen by (in XP) going to Start>>Run and typing in “msconfig”. Then in the box that opens, hit the startup tab.

This will show you what apps startup at boot and by default there are a lot. However, you can use this excellent and very comprehensive guide to find out if you really need a lot of, or indeed any, of this stuff. If you haven’t done this before you may be pleasantly surprised at the number of included startup apps that you can remove from the startup list. As a result, your boot time may dramatically reduce.

After using this guide, I now have only four startup apps in my msconfig/startup list. They are msseces (Microsoft Security Essentials), GoogleDesktop (because I like the Google Sidebar), NvCpl (I have a nVidia GeForce 7300 LS gfx card. Even though I tried to leave this out of the startup list, it just reappeared) and Nexus (because I want the Nexus dock to appear at boot). As a result, I can now completely boot (from select WinXP in my multiboot menu to a fully functional desktop) in just 40 seconds.

Advertisement