Are there any decent tips for speeding Win7 boot times?

Alexrose1uk

Alexrose1uk

Alexrose1uk

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The HTPC I've got runs very light in software terms, being just windows, drivers and the HTPC software running as an alternate shell in lieu of explorer.
The machine has a WD Blue 5400rpm drive for silence, which is going to be a real limitation, but for now putting an SSD in isnt an option.

Does anyone have any decent tips that work, rather than the bogus core number msconfig tweak Ive seen bandied around? Im not expecting to halve loading but it would be nice to shave down as much as possible.:)
 
Yep, standby or hibernate. Use Autoruns to get rid of any unnecessary login items as well. An ssd would be good from a cold boot but standby would still beat it.
 
Standby would be my choice, had too many issues with hibernate over the years (might well be fine in Windows 7 but I haven't tried it). You obviously know that an SSD is ultimately the best option but until then I'd definately opt to put mine into Standby instead!
 
Last time I tried it suspend had a funny habit of doing some funny things with XBMC, but I'll give it another shot see if they've fixed some of the issues, as you're correct suspend is ideal....just want to avoid the glitches/programme freezes I've seen while using it :)

Does anyone have any tips for improving from cold boot? To be fair with a noguiboot it's pretty nippy anyway, coldboot to usable in about 30 seconds, but always nice to go one better :)
I do have my eyes on shifting to a cheaper SSD in the future, I just dont really have the budget to justify the cost...in the slightest (the 5400rpm is all but silent so that nixes using a noisy drive as an excuse :D), right now haha.
 
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Have you disabled any motherboard splash screens? They can waste a second or so. While an SSD would help, it's far from instant on. It will be a long time before you even get close to matching waking from sleep times. I've never really had a problem waking from sleep, in fact I rarely reboot my Windows 7 box (once a month for updates) because sleep/wake works a charm.
 
Yep, that was one of the first things I did, although I might put the splash back on to make it a little more seemless haha but yes I've gone through the BIOS to eliminate stuff like waiting for HDDs. I understand an SSD isn't instant-on, I've got one in my 'laptop', but what it will do is run very quiet, low power and cut times down just a bit *especially compared to a 5400rpm drive*, which is perfect for a HTPC if it wasn't for the cost, plus I'll have a spare HDD I've yet to work out what I'm doing with! :)

At the moment I'm looking at about 30 seconds from power-on to media center loaded, it'd just be nice to trim that down a little :)
I've used Sleep before, I just found it didnt like some of my apps too well, but I'll take a look into them again and see if the bugs have been fixed; I was just trying to see if there were any decent tweaks for Windows7 to cut down on the loading time, its not unliveable in the slightest, just me looking at anything I can streamline on it :)

Even cutting from 30->25 or 20 would be excellent haha (although perhaps the SSD will need to do that!)

If it can't be done, then that's fine, I'll just wait, its not like my setup is horrible as it is, I turn it on and off with my phone and the remote on it! :)

The HTPC really is a complete WIP, hardware-wise Im looking to take the Zalman out and change the fan on it as its the loudest part in the system and its got a nasty little mechanical noise you can hear in a quiet room, whereas the sharkoon I'm using is really unobtrusive, so much so you can instantly hear the noise coming from the CPU direction when you're near the case! Considering modding a Sharkoon SE one into the Zalman, or alternatively a 92mm Nexus as they're meant to be amazingly quiet, but they're hard to get in the UK without spending over the odds.
I'm not even 100% on the software it's going to use in the end, currently using XBMC, but considering shifting over to the DSPlayer branch or another directshow based player in the future.

Just a small part of me looking back and wondering how I managed to spend the money because I had some spare parts, considering I originally just wanted a slight upgrade from my WDTV Live :D
 
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30 seconds? Wow, how impatient are you?

Just put it to sleep. Use powercfg -energy in a CMD console [run as Admin] and it will tell you what is preventing Sleep if you are having issues.
 
I'm not being impatient, as I say its absolutely fine and actually relatively nippy, theres no issues with it whatsoever and I've been happy using it for the last couple of months like this, I'm just trying to see if there's anything I can do to improve it whilst I'm tinkering around with a loads of other bits and pieces to do with it, in the aim of making it 'perfect', before shifting to an SSD which has always been on the working plan for the system in the future. What's wrong with trying to streamline or make improvements?
My phone takes longer to boot than the HTPC haha (actually that it works doesnt stop people trying to get more out of a phone these days either) :D

Same argument you could throw at an overclocker; why try to make it faster when it already runs fast enough? Its always nice to get that little extra or make the situation even better! On older versions there were various things you could do to cut the load time down, I'd been wondering if there was anything for Win7.
 
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30 seconds is already lightning fast from cold start to your software running. Even with an SSD I don't think you would see that much improvement. I think boot up time is the most pointless thing to waste time on improving [especially when it is already good] when you have Sleep and Hibernate.

Any tweak you do is not going to improve on 30 seconds enough for you to notice. It already sounds like you only have the bare minimum loading as it is.

As for why overclock. Simple - save money. You buy a lower-spec CPU and bump it up. ;)
 
Yep, its already nippy, the reason I dont use sleep on this machine is, as mentioned previously, some of the software I use, used to glitch or respond unfavourably with sleep, which is why I tend to try and avoid it.
The entire setup is controlled by a phone-based remotes right now, so I dont even tend to have a kb/mouse connected most of the time, as Im trying to streamline everything as much as possible for ease of use by everyone who uses it not just me, anything which introduces a possible need for restarts/app restarts is kind of opposite to the goal.

If there isnt anything I can do further to trim the loading period down any further, then that's fine, it just seemed worth an ask :)
 
Could you not turn off the application before you sleep?

Waking the HTPC and opening an application should be faster than a cold boot.
 
Thats the whole point, no keyboard and mouse on the machine, its purely controlled by a remote app for simplicity, once I'm happy with the configuration and setup, it'll go into a unit and stay there, with only an external media drive and network connection working :)
I could exit the app with the remote programme, but then I wouldnt be able to reopen it without reconnecting a keyboard, which is why I was looking to see if there were any steps that improve cold boot times. Im quite happy to live with it as it is, it's not like 30 seconds from power on is a long time, but as Tesco's keeps telling us 'every little helps' :D
 
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If it's Windows 7 you can force a boot optimization by doing the following as admin:
Start | Run | Type: cmd | OK |
Type:

defrag c: -boot

Hit Enter
 
LOL after reading this thread last night, I decided to put my computer to sleep rather than turn it off - made a right pigs tit of it lol

Turned it back on this morning and it wouldn't even post! Powered on - off - on - off - on - off... etc (each 'on' for about 2 secs, just to spin the fans up then off again) - after probably 20 of those (I couldn't stop it) it finally posted but it had reset my bios so I had to re-o/c and reset my whole bios - total PITA LOL

Think I'll just use the good ol' 'shut down' button from now on ;)
 
yashiro said:
If it's Windows 7 you can force a boot optimization by doing the following as admin:
Start | Run | Type: cmd | OK |
Type:

defrag c: -boot

Hit Enter
Click to expand...

Cheers; dont know if it'll do much or if it'll like the lack of explorer shell, but will give that a run and see if it helps at all.

Chris said:
FWIW, I use S3 sleep on my XBMC box with no issues whatsoever.
Click to expand...
I've seen a lot of people mentioning issues with lag or stuttering once sleep etc comes into play since Dharma entered testing. I'd rather just avoid the issue where possible.

SiriusB said:
Create a task that reopens your programmes when you wake up the computer!
Click to expand...

Now that's a possibility I HAD forgotten. I'll have a look at this route when I've got a chance, closing the app on sleep and re-executing it on wake should completely avoid any possible sleep related issues.
 
Alexrose1uk said:
I've seen a lot of people mentioning issues with lag or stuttering once sleep etc comes into play since Dharma entered testing. I'd rather just avoid the issue where possible.
Click to expand...
Been using Dharma Betas 2 and 3 on two HTPCs and not seen any problems with standby here.
 
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