First we will learn how to measure the boot time of Windows so that we can actually sense the speedup in Windows boot time. I will be using Windows 8 for all the tests. Although there are several software to test PC boot time like Soluto, I like to use BootRacer because of its simplicity and efficiency. The latest version of BootRacer adds support for Windows 8. You can also use it on previous versions of Windows as well.
To measure Windows startup time, simply click on the Start button and it will display a message that BootRacer will measure the startup time of Windows on the next startup and offer you to restart Windows now. You can save your work and restart Windows to test it right away.
After the restart process, BootRacer will display a message about how much time it take for complete Windows startup.
My Windows 8 Release Preview took 2 minutes and 41 seconds. BootRacer will also give you a history of your startup times. We will only measure the startup time from BootRacer. To speed up Windows startup, you can always read the above mentioned articles which will go through the speedup process step by step. After going through the startup items, processes and services, you can download Argus Boot Accelerator which takes care of one thing that Windows lacks, the sequential startup of startup processes and services. When Windows loads, it will start loading everything in parallel. This usually slows down the whole startup process. A better option would be to delay startup of some processes and services until necessary services are loaded up. This is what Argus Boot Accelerator is for.
Using Argus Boot Accelerator is quite easy. Upon installation, it will automatically start its own startup services so that it can manage the startup items. To manage an item through Argus Boot Accelerator, you will need to drag and drop the items from Unmanaged Startup Items group to Managed Startup Items group. Selecting an item in the managed startup items group will enable all the options for that item at the bottom of the window. You can delay the item startup, change its priority, change the CPU load it can take and the week days on which this item should be active. You will need to go through each and every item and identify which startup items are taking more resources, delay their startup to run Windows faster. In Windows 8, it’s quite easy to see the startup impact of each startup item. Just open the Task Manager, go to Startup Tab and see the Startup Impact column adjacent to each startup item.
After cleaning up the startup, you should measure the startup time again to see the difference. Now you should be able to get an idea how much faster your system loads.
