What to do when Windows XP starts slow

Often hear computer users have such a complaint: How I opened the computer after the screen has been black, to have a Half-day XP interface appears? Why does my computer get into the system so slowly? The scroll bars are turned more than 10 laps and can not enter the system. Why does my XP click on any program in a few minutes after my desktop doesn't respond? These problems can all boil down to Windows XP startup slow. What can be done to speed up the system's start-up speed?

To solve the problem of slow XP startup, you must first understand the system startup process. The startup process for Windows XP can be roughly divided into 5 steps: First, pre-boot: First the computer power up for self-test, and the BIOS (that is, the basic input and output system) scans the hardware and completes the basic hardware configuration, and then reads the MBR (Master boot record) of the hard disk to check the hard disk partition table to determine the boot partition, and the operating system boot sector on the boot partition is transferred into in-memory execution, where the NTLDR (operating system loader) file is executed. The second step is to start: First, NTLDR will convert the processor to 32-bit protection mode from the original mode. Then read the Boot.ini file. Step three,. Mount kernel: The boot process starts loading the XP kernel NTOSKRNL.EXE. This file is located in the SYSTEM32 folder under the WINDOWS2000/XP installation folder. The hardware abstraction layer (HAL) is then loaded by the bootstrap process to complete this step. Step fourth, initialize the kernel: The kernel completes initialization, and NTLDR transfers control to the WINDOWS2000/XP kernel, which starts loading and initializing device drivers, and starts the WIN32 subsystem and Windows XP services. The fifth step is user login, after which XP will continue to configure the network device and user environment. Finally, with the system's boot music and our familiar desktop, the long Windows XP startup process is finally complete.

With an understanding of the XP startup process, we can take measures to speed up the start-up.

1, prohibit the use of peripherals

Through the previous understanding of the startup process we know that XP will automatically scan the hardware at startup, so if you disable some peripherals in WinXP, you can effectively reduce the number of peripheral drivers that need to be transferred when the system starts up, thus speeding up the system's startup speed. If you do not have a USB device on your computer, disable all USB devices in the Device Manager-Universal Serial Bus controller. This method will allow you to reduce your XP boot time by about 15 seconds. Second, if you don't have more than one hard drive installed, you can also disable certain IDE devices to speed up your startup. The procedure is: right click on "My Computer-Properties", then click on "Hardware" and click "Device Manager", in which "IDE ata/pata Controller" (slightly different chips), and then enter the main and secondary IDE channels, select "Advanced Settings", where the "current transfer mode" is found "Not Applicable" (this is the corresponding to the unused IDE channel), set this item's "Device Type" to "none", OK. Also note: Because the system will automatically read the optical drive, so the start will be detected by optical drive, if the CD-ROM drive placed in the disc, will automatically read, if it is a multimedia CD so that the time spent on reading will be longer, the same extension of computer startup time. Therefore, we recommend that you use the CD in time to remember to take out.

2, reduce the loading process at startup

Probably a lot of people have this feeling: XP startup speed in the initial installation of the system is still relatively fast, but as the installation of the software continues to increase, the system will start faster and slower. This is because many software put themselves in the startup program, so the boot on the need to run, greatly reducing the start-up speed, but also occupy a large number of system resources. For such programs, we can exclude them from the startup group through the System Configuration Utility msconfig. Select the Run command from the Start menu, in the Run dialog box, type Msconfig, and the System Configuration Utility dialog box pops up, selecting the Startup tab, which lists the items and sources loaded at system startup, and carefully review whether each item needs to be automatically loaded , otherwise the current check box for the item is cleared, and the fewer items are loaded, the faster it starts. It is recommended that, in addition to retaining the input method (Ctfmon in the Startup project) and the antivirus monitoring program (such as Ravtask), everything else is prohibited from running automatically at startup.

3. Set the IP address manually

As already mentioned, the XP system will automatically detect whether the computer is connected to the local area network after the boot, but the general user is a stand-alone internet, and in the network connection basically set are automatically obtain IP address. Thus, the system searches for a DHCP server to assign an IP address to the machine, but the average user does not configure it at all. This causes the system to take a long time to search the DHCP server after each boot, until the IP address is obtained or the service timeout stops, even when it comes to the desktop, double-click the program without any reflection. This is also a lot of Windows XP users to reflect the "panic" after the 10 seconds of the problem! In fact, as long as the "local connection" manually assigned an IP address can be simple to solve this problem, to avoid Windows XP every time the automatic network detection, thereby speeding up the boot. The specific practice is as follows: Right click on "Network Neighborhood"-select Properties, enter the window right click on "Local Connection"-select Properties, double-click Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), select "Use the following IP address" and enter an IP address (for example: 192.168.0.1) , the subnet mask defaults. (This will not conflict with your Internet connection, this address is only used in the local area network) so that the system search again will quickly find IP and quickly into the system.

4. Close the theme good stopgap desktop

A lot of friends like to put on their own desktop a beautiful background, such as their favorite star photos and so on. But there is a price to be beautiful, it is to consume a lot of memory, at the same time there are too many icons on the desktop is the same. Because every time the system starts to display the desktop, you first need to check whether to enable the theme, once found will be loaded, a lot of topics like this to eat a lot of memory (many other users of their own production of the theme is not perfect, the use of a lot of compatibility problems caused by system failure). The system also finds and verifies the validity of desktop shortcuts, so the more shortcuts you have, the longer the validation time will take. I suggest you try not to use the theme, up to set a beautiful wallpaper on it. Then, the desktop shortcuts are categorized into specialized folders for easy management and speed up the launch of both birds.

The above mentioned several ways to speed up Windows XP startup, but in the actual use of the computer process, but also take into account the impact of other factors. For example, now popular Trojans, viruses, rogue plug-ins, malicious code, etc., will greatly reduce the system's start-up speed. In addition, many of the user's bad operating habits can also cause XP to start slower. Other such as computer hardware configuration also to some extent to the system's start-up impact.