Whats the fastest OS to boot up

[Wingnut]

I use my TP mostly for automobile diagnostics, so I start it up & shut it down for each car I work on. I just want a basic OS to allow me to boot it up & shut it down quickly.

It currently has XP Pro on it, so if I can reduce the boot up time on that, it would be great. I know 2000 takes forever to boot as I am running it on my Desktop and my dads TP. Win 95 is too old, so its either 98 or stay with XP. Can I do anything about geting XP to boot quicker?

Thanks.

[rkawakami]

I'm assuming you're running some Windows program to help with the car diagnosis so suggesting DOS is out of the question, yes?

How about just putting the laptop into hibernate mode. Should only take about 10-15 seconds to exit, depending upon the programs you have running and the amount of memory in the system.

As far as booting WinXP quicker, there's lots of information about trimming down the processes that are automatically started. Google "windows xp startup process streamline".

[egibbs]

Depending on how much time you want to invest there are lots of things you could strip out of Windows if you are just using it as a glorified code scanner.

I'd start with all the network stuff (assuming you are not connecting to the vehicles over a LAN cable). Removing the physical network adapter if it's not integrated into the system board might also help as then Windows won't waste time loading for the drivers for it. Most of the Thinkvantage stuff could also go - CSS, Access Connections, etc. Might keep R&R if you want to be able to do backups, or nuke it and use Ghost or TrueImage from a CD. Antivirus and firewalls aren't needed if the machine never sees a network, etc.

Would be an interesting project to see just how far Windows can be stripped down and still retain enough functionality to run your diagnostic software.

Ed Gibbs

[dsigma6]

I don't think XP is the premiere choice for a p2 266 with 192MB of RAM! But yea, Hibernate.

[carbon_unit]

Which program are you using?

[pianowizard]

TP 600 2645 51U PII 266mhz 192mb

On such a machine, I believe Win98 or Win98SE would take the least time to power up. For WinXP, hibernation is a good idea, but if you have a good battery or are plugged in most of the time, standby would be even faster.

[Wingnut]

Thanks for the suggestions. As for my TP properties, I will soon be upgrading the processor to 400 mhz and adding a second 128mb memory stick to bring it up to 288mb, so it should be fine to run XP.

I bought this computer as a replacement for my 755ED that i was using for my diagnostic machine. It worked fine with 98. But I often found myself working in the garage and needing to check something on the internet, so I thought I would upgrade to a slightly newer machine. I also needed a USB port, which my 755 did not have, for my new diagnostic cable. I run a software called VAG-COM to scan VW and Audi cars.

It has a wifi card, so I can use it to surf. I also wouldn't mind putting in a DVD drive so the kids can watch movies on long trips. But I have since read that the playback can be choppy without adding additional hardware, so I will have to look into that some more. When I first got it, it seemed to load up pretty quick. But since I updated the XP through Microsoft Update, it seems all the security fixes & stuff slowed down the boot time. I guess I can just remove them all and start fresh again? Anyway, I will look at your suggestion of stripping down XP as it is already installed on the machine.

Thanks for the tips

[egibbs]

Start by defragging.

Ed Gibbs

[Rob Mayercik]

I also wouldn't mind putting in a DVD drive so the kids can watch movies on long trips. But I have since read that the playback can be choppy without adding additional hardware, so I will have to look into that some more.

Under 98SE, I found that my 300MHz processor played movies fine as long as I kept DMA enabled on the optical drive. Just don't expect HD picture quality.

Rob

[atomMan]

XP can boot very quickly and be trimmed down to run on very old hardware, if you want to use it.

i'd suggest doing a custom build using nLite (http://nliteos.com/) and gut out everything you don't need/want (a typical install for me is 1/2 the size and i have all the functionality i want). after that, make sure to disable any hardware and services you don't need, especially networking stuff which can add a lot of time to the boot/shutdown process. check BIOS as well and disable anything you don't need. try to set the hardware in BIOS to be static, rather than 'auto-detect'.

[robegusn]

Just my opinion, but FreeBSD certainly tops my list for boot speed.

Great option if your application will run............................

[ducky2802]

I try to speed up xp as much as possible for booting. On my X21, I was able to boot in 24 seconds, pretty much everything working (wireless/lan, internet, office, photoshop, some IBM programs like battery maximiser, and a few cad/math programs).

On my X24, I can boot it in 17 seconds, again. A total of 15 services are running at startup.

On my T60, it takes nearly 2 minutes, 80+ services, and I have yet to figure out how many I can remove...or even if any of the cryptic names Im not too familiar with are legitimate processes!

The fastest boot Ive seen is a dual core iMac. It barely turns on, speeds through a start screen, and presents you with a useable desktop almost instantaneously (compared to xp!).

[atomMan]

One of the first things i did when i got my T60 was to wipe the drive and install an nLite'd XP Pro (see post above). It still took quite a while to boot and there was a lot of services and background apps running due to the abundance of proprietary TP software, so i started dumping a lot of that. I found i didn't need much of it, like the connection manager which adds a significant amount of time to the boot process, or the configuration util. The system now boots pretty fast and i have everything that i want working. It's also more stable with less errors.

[Rob Mayercik]

The thing about VAG-COM (I have it too) is that it's Windows only - no versions for other O/Ss.

Since that is the primary use for this thing, a streamlined Windows is probably best (plus, getting DVDs playing may be simpler).

Wingnut - I've been using 98SE for several years now on my 600, but am now going to up it to XP. Mainly this is because of M$ terminating support for 98, and I want to keep the security patches up to date. (peripherally, there's also the fact that finding much software that is still supporting 98 is getting difficult).

I have noticed that even with APM support installed on 98SE, I didn't have a whole lot of luck with suspend/hibernate, so I just power up and down. When I ran an XP trial session on it, it seemed to do okay with suspend/hibernate. They didn't seem too much faster than power cycling, but at least they'd save system state where a powerdown wouldn't..

[atomMan]

Hi Rob

Playing DVD's is no problem whatsoever and there's several media players that can handle it, including subtitles. When i install windows, i completely remove WMP, WMP 6.4 and the ability to upgrade as well. I do keep the codecs sometimes, but that's optional. Then i install the k-lite mega codec pack (http://codecguide.com/) which comes with Media Player Classic which is a lot like WMP 6.4 -- on steroids. Another good alternative for which you don't need any codec package is VideoLAN (VLC). It's an amazing little package that plays almost everything (http://www.videolan.org/).

Now, if you really want to stay with 98, take a stroll over to the MSFN forums (http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php). You'll find a lot of active work going on with W98, including unofficial service packs and tweaks out the wazoo. However, i don't think 98 is going to do much to take advantage of newer hardware.