startup time

[apd]

I have read through some posts on eliminating a lot of unecessary startup programs/tasks that will give a much quicker startup time, but had a question about disc caching.

After searching through some posts i found a download to a bios/startup monitor that basically tells you what programs take what amount of time, and will just step you through disk usage, cpu status, and everything during a startup. My question is about disc caching. When i looked at my hard drive disc caching, it said that it was disabled. I checked in bios to look for an option to ENABLE it, but couldn't seem to find it. Does anyone know how to enable this feature, and will this help improve the startup time?

Also, another question i have is about the thinkvantage security on startup. I seem to be having a problem disabling any startup prompts, and booting straight into windows (without typing passwords...etc). I have already disabled features from the ->control panel->User accounts-> logging on/off. After i rebooted it came up with the crtl,alt,delete prompt for me to swipe my finger/type password. I went back into windows >ctrl panel>user accounts> and received an error saying that i could not use this feature becuase a file was preventing changes to it called vrlogon.dll. I searched that file and it came up in c:>windows/system32

I could NOT delete this file, and it was created by thinkvantage...i have played around wiht the thinkvantage security options, but i cannot get rid of that file.

Basically long story short, i am trying to minimize the startup time, and am having a helluva time doing so. Anyone with more experience that can help it would be appreciatd. I have done searches, but have found bits and pieces in different places, but can't seem to get it all done correctly. i just want to boot quickly!!!

Thanks in advance.

[smvp6459]

I'm not sure how your HD's caching is disabled and I see no apparent way to change it in XP's system settings...you might need to download a utility for your particular drive to address the issue. Using the cache would definitely pick up the pace.

There are a couple of things you can do to speed up the process:

-Remove programs you don't need...which follows nicely to the next-
-Disable programs that startup, but you would like to keep around
-Disable services from starting up

Removing programs is pretty straightforward (e.g. Google stuff, diskeeper, and other unnecessary cruft).

I like to use Spybot Search & Destroy for disabling startup programs...in addition to dealing with spyware, it has a nice tool that sometimes has useful descriptions for what you're disabling. Others may have better suggestions.

You can disable services by going to "Run" and execute services.msc. Disable a few services at a time and when in doubt look them up on the Internet. Don't disable Alerter, as that will easily double, triple or quadruple your startup time.