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Speed Up Your Startup Time with BootVis
Posted by Adam Pash at 5:00 AM on December 15, 2007
Windows only: Freeware application BootVis analyses your Windows startup, tracking the programs that automatically run and the drivers Windows loads, to show you what processes are slowing down your startup. To use it, just run the app and select one of the options from the Trace menu. BootVis will restart you computer, track your startup, and analyse the results. You can even ask BootVis to optimise your boot time, but I'd suggest hunting down your worst-offending startup apps and disabling them with msconfig if you don't absolutely need them. Originally a Microsoft software, this abandoned freeware, Windows XP only tool is the perfect tool for troubleshooting a slow-to-boot system.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
Daniel Griscom
Posted 2:55 PM 14/12/07
From Microsoft's page on Bootviz:
"Please note that Bootvis.exe is not a tool that will improve boot/resume performance for end users. Contrary to some published reports, Bootvis.exe cannot reduce or alter a system's boot or resume performance. The boot optimization routines invoked by Bootvis.exe are built into Windows XP. These routines run automatically at pre-determined times as part of the normal operation of the operating system"
Daniel Griscom
chris-mcc
Posted 2:54 PM 14/12/07
...First and last time I make a serious post on Lifehacker.
chris-mcc
Rich Bradshaw
Posted 2:36 PM 14/12/07
Doesn't Vista defrag itself these days?
lol @ microsoft still using filesystems that fragment!
Rich Bradshaw
TendoMentis
Posted 2:19 PM 14/12/07
@chris-mcc: Yeah, XP :)
No, seriously, I use Vista and love it. I was just giving voice to the masses that don't.
I haven't had a big problem with Vista boot times though. I also don't install a LOT of 3rd-party (just the Nero and Adobe CS3 products mostly). Doing a regular defrag of your system drive also helps a lot.
TendoMentis
Rhywun
Posted 1:29 PM 14/12/07
"Abandoned freeware"? Sign me up!
Rhywun
chris-mcc
Posted 1:04 PM 14/12/07
Anything like this for Vista?
chris-mcc
joelena
Posted 5:45 PM 14/12/07
@Daniel Griscom: RTA - Both here and the linked article they state that the optimization features aren't likely to get you much. The usefulness is in analyzing your boot processes so that you can manually disable anything that seems to be taking too long.
joelena
element119
Posted 4:55 PM 14/12/07
this is built into xp and vista
element119
bigbill25
Posted 4:42 PM 14/12/07
I get the following when I tried it:
---------------------------
Number of Physical drives in the trace file is 0
Trace file has invalid system configuration information
---------------------------
Sounded like a nice tool...
--Bill
bigbill25
Bob Brown
Posted 8:18 PM 14/12/07
@Rich Bradshaw: Mac and Linux will still fragment. Using the different partitions for the OS, swap, and data files helps but the files will still fragment. They do put good size gaps around the files for future expansion, but there are no guarantees.
Bob Brown
martinpolley
Posted 10:37 PM 14/12/07
@bigbill25: Me too :(
martinpolley
graham.reeds
Posted 6:29 AM 15/12/07
Something like this for 2K would suit me...
graham.reeds
ahoier
Posted 7:17 AM 16/12/07
TBH - your best bet is going to be manually investigating the MSCONFIG - go straight to the "Startup" tab - and disable all that crud there. Yes, it's mostly crud - since most of that stuff can be launched by the end-user when they intend to use the application - rather than have the "user friendlieness" of Windows load it into memory automagically for you ;)
ahoier
Apartment5F
Posted 11:47 AM 16/12/07
"but I'd suggest hunting down your worst-offending startup apps and disabling them with msconfig if you don't absolutely need them."
Totally worked - thanks!
Apartment5F
atomicrabbit
Posted 7:08 AM 17/12/07
why does this need to be installed. They should have just made a standalone exe to run.
atomicrabbit
schnitz
Posted 11:44 AM 21/12/07
Seems like you'd have to install it if you want it to monitor the startup process, to see how long things actually take. Without that, you'd be guessing from the various lists of startup items.
schnitz