Tom's Guide: 15 Ways to Speed Up Your Boot and Shutdown Times

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Check out Tom's Guide's latest story on speeding up your boot and shutdown times.

There's nothing more annoying than a computer that takes an age to turn on or switch off. Luckily there are a few things you can try to remedy the situation. The Tom's Guide team has come up with a list of 15 different tips, tricks and tools that should help you get you online (or offline) that much quicker. Check out '15 Ways to Speed Up Your Boot and Shutdown Times' for the full list!

Stuck with a sluggish boot? Can't wait to get away from your desk but held back by a slow shutdown? Well, there are a number of simple tweaks and tools that you can use to speed up your boot. The following pages offer a series of helpful hardware upgrade suggestions, simple system tweaks, as well as free utilities that aim to speed up your system. Read on for all the best tips! 15 Ways to Speed Up Your Boot and Shutdown Times

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Jane McEntegart
6 Comments Comment from the forums
  • internetlad
    It's 2013. With a solid state drive, I've seen pcs that start up in 10 seconds or less on a stock install of windows 7

    Unless you're trapped under a girder in a burning building and the only way you can get out is by logging onto your computer and calling your girder ending robot, I don't see why these tweaks are necessary. In 2005 when it took 3 minutes for a computer to start, 5 seconds here and there were useful tweaks, and fun to do. Am I supposed to sit here with a stopwatch and get all sorts of excited about the 70ms i'm going to save when my PC starts now?
    Reply
  • internetlad
    It's 2013. With a solid state drive, I've seen pcs that start up in 10 seconds or less on a stock install of windows 7

    Unless you're trapped under a girder in a burning building and the only way you can get out is by logging onto your computer and calling your girder ending robot, I don't see why these tweaks are necessary. In 2005 when it took 3 minutes for a computer to start, 5 seconds here and there were useful tweaks, and fun to do. Am I supposed to sit here with a stopwatch and get all sorts of excited about the 70ms i'm going to save when my PC starts now?
    Reply
  • razor512
    wanted to add that startup booster that was recommended in the article is partial malware. if you allow it to alter your startup, it locks your services and startup list (even if you are on the administrator account) (tested on a VM, and uninstalling the app does not fix that issue, you essentially need to use system restore to undo the damage.

    Soluto is now entirely cloud based with a little adware mixed in (nagging for you to pay for it's added features) furthermore it is the longest loading tool, thus adding it to your startup will likely make your startup take longer)

    If you want to speed your startup use codestuff starter, it does not add any of it's own startup items or services, it is free, no ads, and offers more control than any of the other tools recommended.

    and as will all software, test it on a VM first.
    Reply
  • irish_adam
    none of these programs are needed or will do anything to your start up times.

    The easiest way to help your start up times has been the same for over a decade

    1) dont let things run in your system tray
    2) go to the task manager>>>file>>>run>>>msconfig and then go through all the start up and serices and disable everything that isnt a driver or windows related, takes you like 5 mins
    Reply
  • christop
    Get an ssd..
    Reply
  • Inoy
    You have missed 1 really great program with really great functionality.

    AnVir Task Manager
    Reply