Excessive Startup Time
brbrown wrote:
"Daave" wrote:
brbrown wrote:
I use a Windows XP Sp3 desktop computer with an AMD Athlon 2GHZ
processor, 149GB hard disc with 133.3GB free space and 512MB of RAM.
I regularly use CCleaner, Ad-Aware and Ashampoo Cleaner. After
startup, when all the desktop, task bar and notification area icons
have appeared, the processor runs for another 5 or 6 minutes before
I am able to use it. In msconfig Startup, I have turned off all the
none essential programmes I recognise to stop them starting but it
makes no difference.
In Task Manager, quite often, System Idle is showing CPU use as 92%
to 99% idle but the hard disc is very busy with CPU use diving
between various processes but AAW Service.exe which I believe to be
Ad-Aware disabled in msconfig, is always shown as working and
sometimes takes over from System Idle with up to 99% CPU usage. What
is going on?
Other than completely re-installing Windows, can anyone please
suggest what I can do to speed startup?
For starters, uninstall AdAware since it's hogging CPU cycles.
Although this was once a highly regarded anti-spyware program, it's
just a shadow of its former self. (MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware and
SUPERAntiSpyware are far better.)
While you're at it, uninstall the useless Ashampoo Cleaner. Registry
cleaners never deliver noticeable performance improvement, and
there's always the risk they may muck something up. Keep Ccleaner,
but avoid its registry cleaning function.
Finally, as you have discovered, msconfig is often not effective in
truly disabling programs or processes that automatically run at
startup. The proper way to do this is to go to each program's
settings or preferences and do it that way. If you don't see the
way, post back and someone should be able to help you. Msconfig is
best used as a short-term diagnostic tool. For programs that are not
well-behaved, AutoRuns would be a better program than msconfig.
Although it will take some time, I would reconfigure a normal boot
in msconfig and then trim down your startup programs and processes
by going to the programs' settings themselves. For programs like
AdAware that are detrimental (or for programs that you *never* use,
simply uninstall them. :-)
Thankyou both very much for your replies. Sorry about the delay
coming back but I didn't get an email notification that you had
posted. I just checked on the offchance. I will take heed of what
you have both said and post back with the results. Thanks again.
YW and good luck.
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