How to make vista boot faster

[fr0zenmon]

anyone has ideas. I would like to boot windows ideally when i press the power button. But how close can I get?

[Wiz]

Do you mean the time it takes to boot Vista or the time it takes before Vista actually start to boot?
If you are talking about the time it takes before Windows start to boot there might be some BIOS settings like disable some extended tests that could make Windows start to boot faster, but i think those is disabled by default. Also the boot order can make a difference in case you have the CD-Rom listed before the HDD and have a CD inserted during boot, but i guess there isn't many seconds to gain changing the boot order.
I'm not sure what kind of computer you use with Vista, but those listed in your signature is pretty much lower then the requirements and way lower then the recommended spec. for Vista. If you run Vista on any of those i would higly recommend to use XP or buy a new computer. So if you want Vista to boot faster on any of those i guess there is some tweaks you can do, but cannot imagine those will ever boot fast with Vista:)

[fr0zenmon]

time my desktop appears. I hope that is clearer. Yea its for a t61 tp not the ones in my sig. Ill update that.

[Wiz]

time my desktop appears. I hope that is clearer. Yea its for a t61 tp not the ones in my sig. Ill update that.

I guess there is some tweaks that can be done to make it boot slightly faster, but more important might be the software you install and what you have to start automatically. I have a T61p and boot Windows in about 1 min (ready to use). I noticed a big difference with some antivirus software. Like Symantec AV Corp edition made the computer slow to boot. Using nod32 there is almost no difference compared to no AV software installed.
I guess using Native SATA mode might make it slightly faster as well. Since i find my computer to boot pretty fast i never really tried to make it faster, but maybe someone else have some great tips. Also i use standby most of the time and then it's very fast of course.

[K0LO]

...I noticed a big difference with some antivirus software. Like Symantec AV Corp edition made the computer slow to boot...

Same experience here. To put some numbers on it, Vista boots in 18 sec without Symantec AV Corp installed. With it installed, it boots in 36 sec. In my case SAV doubles the boot time.

[Marin85]

1. There are 3 hardware components that would influence Vista boot times: cpu, RAM amount, HDD performance. The latter one is also the most significant factor. The higher transfer rates your HDD is capable of, the better - ideally SSD or 15K Raptor
2. Do a clean install of Vista, if possible with already integrated SP1.
3. 64bit systems generally have shorter startup times than their x86 relatives. However, in the case of Vista, after SP1 there doesn´t seem to be much of a difference in bootup times between Vista x64 and x86 (just my personal opinion based on experience).
4. If possible, go for Windows Server 2008 instead of Vista.
5. Disable all unnecessary programs from startup via msconfig utility (windows key + R -> type msconfig -> startup)
6. Disable prefetch and superfetch: run -> regedit -> navigate to Computer/HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/Session Manager/MemoryManagement/PrefetchParameters -> set EnablePrefetcher and EnableSuperfect values to 0. Then go to run -> services.msc -> disable Superfetch. Reboot. That´s all. Note changes to the registry may damage your windows installation and make it necessary to reinstall OS and apps, so use this "tweak" on your own risk (actually, it´s not that dangerous since these are the default settings in Server 2008). Prefetch and Superfetch are considered to be one of the leading new features introduced with Vista, but they seem to me completely useless if one has a HDD with good performance (not necessarily SSD or 10K Raptor ). What is more applying this reg "tweak" significantly decreases the time for the OS to come to a "ready-to-use-state" (in particular the time from seeing the desktop to being able to launch any application or open any folder without increased delay). Doing this would not lead you to experience decreased performance or whatsoever even over time. I consider the ready-to-use-state (thanks Wiz for the term ) as the most important part of OS startup to an user Those who would claim disabling superfetch is not a good idea because it optimizes system performance over time etc have probably never tried it out or still use 40 GB 4200 rpm drives (just a joke ).
7. Some users have reported success with the so called TweakXP utility. It has been designed for XP but seems to work with Vista as well. It has a feature ultrafastboot (or something the like) that rearranges some critical for the boot process files. I have never noticed any difference and I don´t recommend it.
8. Defrag! Vista has a very good built-in defrag utility and although I used to use and recommend PerfectDisk, I must say I´m pretty glad with the Vista one (hence no need to install additional software that could be just another service or two more in startup).
9. Keep fingers away from reg cleaners and different performance tweaking utilities for Vista. They can make things worse, break apps, slow Vista down or even make it unusable. If any "tweaks" needed, one should be always able to make them manually via windows.

Hope this helps!

Marin

[Trekk69]

Good tips,
I have had success with TweakXP on my Vista machine

[hellosailor]

I know the question is regarding cold boot, but does the computer HAVE TO be cold booted?

Vista loads much faster if you use the sleep or hibernate functions, that's why they are there.

Vista also appears to be terribly fragile, a lot of older software will make it take forever to show a desktop--if it shows one at all.