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[Kinchelo]

I have a dell dimension 8400. When I start the computer, after the Dell screen, it takes 7 min before the window screen comes on. After the boot up everything works fine. I'm not that knowledgeable with computers so if you can help please keep it simple.
Thank you for any help

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Kinchelo wrote:

> I have a dell dimension 8400. When I start the computer, after the
> Dell screen, it takes 7 min before the window screen comes on. After
> the boot up everything works fine. I'm not that knowledgeable with
> computers so if you can help please keep it simple.
> Thank you for any help


My personal view is that the attention many people pay to how long it takes
to boot is unwarranted. Assuming that the computer's speed is otherwise
satisfactory, it may not be worth worrying about. Most people start their
computers once a day or even less frequently. In the overall scheme of
things, even a few minutes to start up isn't very important. Personally I
power on my computer when I get up in the morning, then go get my coffee.
When I come back, it's done booting. I don't know how long it took to boot
and I don't care.

However if you do want to address it, it may be because of what programs
start automatically, and you may want to stop some of them from starting
that way. On each program you don't want to start automatically, check its
Options to see if it has the choice not to start (make sure you actually
choose the option not to run it, not just a "don't show icon" option). Many
can easily and best be stopped that way. If that doesn't work, run MSCONFIG
from the Start | Run line, and on the Startup tab, uncheck the programs you
don't want to start automatically.

However, if I were you, I wouldn't do this just for the purpose of running
the minimum number of programs. Despite what many people tell you, you
should be concerned, not with how *many* of these programs you run, but
*which*. Some of them can hurt performance severely, but others have no
effect on performance.

Don't just stop programs from running willy-nilly. What you should do is
determine what each program is, what its value is to you, and what the cost
in performance is of its running all the time. You can get more information
about these at http://castlecops.com/StartupList.html. If you can't find it
there, try google searches and ask about specifics here.

Once you have that information, you can make an intelligent informed
decision about what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup

[Kinchelo]

Kinchelo wrote:

I have a dell dimension 8400. When I start the computer, after the
Dell screen, it takes 7 min before the window screen comes on. After
the boot up everything works fine. I'm not that knowledgeable with
computers so if you can help please keep it simple.
Thank you for any help


My personal view is that the attention many people pay to how long it takes
to boot is unwarranted. Assuming that the computer's speed is otherwise
satisfactory, it may not be worth worrying about. Most people start their
computers once a day or even less frequently. In the overall scheme of
things, even a few minutes to start up isn't very important. Personally I
power on my computer when I get up in the morning, then go get my coffee.
When I come back, it's done booting. I don't know how long it took to boot
and I don't care.

However if you do want to address it, it may be because of what programs
start automatically, and you may want to stop some of them from starting
that way. On each program you don't want to start automatically, check its
Options to see if it has the choice not to start (make sure you actually
choose the option not to run it, not just a "don't show icon" option). Many
can easily and best be stopped that way. If that doesn't work, run MSCONFIG
from the Start | Run line, and on the Startup tab, uncheck the programs you
don't want to start automatically.

However, if I were you, I wouldn't do this just for the purpose of running
the minimum number of programs. Despite what many people tell you, you
should be concerned, not with how *many* of these programs you run, but
*which*. Some of them can hurt performance severely, but others have no
effect on performance.

Don't just stop programs from running willy-nilly. What you should do is
determine what each program is, what its value is to you, and what the cost
in performance is of its running all the time. You can get more information
about these at http://castlecops.com/StartupList.html. If you can't find it
there, try google searches and ask about specifics here.

Once you have that information, you can make an intelligent informed
decision about what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup

Ken thank you for the info. I think I'm going to take your advice and do nothing. I think the coffee idea sound good also.

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Kinchelo wrote:
> Ken Blake, MVP Wrote:
>> Kinchelo wrote:
>> -
>> I have a dell dimension 8400. When I start the computer, after the
>> Dell screen, it takes 7 min before the window screen comes on. After
>> the boot up everything works fine. I'm not that knowledgeable with
>> computers so if you can help please keep it simple.
>> Thank you for any help-
>>
>>
>> My personal view is that the attention many people pay to how long it
>> takes
>> to boot is unwarranted. Assuming that the computer's speed is
>> otherwise
>>
>> satisfactory, it may not be worth worrying about. Most people start
>> their
>> computers once a day or even less frequently. In the overall scheme
>> of
>>
>> things, even a few minutes to start up isn't very important.


> Ken thank you for the info. I think I'm going to take your advice and
> do nothing. I think the coffee idea sound good also.


You're welcome. Glad to help.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup