long pause

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Guest

Help! I keep getting a long pause when the welcome screen appears and the
startup music plays, I then get the background wallpaper and have to wait
quite a while until I get all the icons and the taskbar appearing, any ideas
anybody?
 
Boenerge said:
Help! I keep getting a long pause when the welcome screen appears
and the startup music plays, I then get the background wallpaper and
have to wait quite a while until I get all the icons and the taskbar
appearing, any ideas anybody?
Click to expand...


How long is a long pause? How long is "quite a while"? Please be specific.

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.

The other possibilty that's more and more common these days is that you are
infgected with spyware. What anti-spyware applications do you run, and do
you keep them up to date?
 
'Boenerge' wrote:
| Help! I keep getting a long pause when the welcome screen appears and the
| startup music plays, I then get the background wallpaper and have to wait
| quite a while until I get all the icons and the taskbar appearing, any
ideas
| anybody?Do you use a wireless router?
Do you have network protocols that you don't use? Firewire connections that
you don't use?

What exactly does 'have to wait quite a while' mean? Thirty seconds?
Thirty minutes?

You may not realize how long programs really load since Windows 2000/Windows
XP fetches program modules that allow you to start working before the entire
program is loaded.

Likely you can set your system to hibernate and then be up in less than 20
seconds from turning on the system. Then you only need do a full boot to
clear out any errors that may accumulate.

Phil Weldon

| Help! I keep getting a long pause when the welcome screen appears and the
| startup music plays, I then get the background wallpaper and have to wait
| quite a while until I get all the icons and the taskbar appearing, any
ideas
| anybody?
 
Boenerge wrote:
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...

Why not run the minimum amount of programs ?

Why should a lot, or any for that matter, start when your not going to
use them, like the lame-o RealPlayer.

You can spend a good half-a-day cleaning up a brand spanking new Dell PC
getting rid of all the crap-ware they install.
 
DanS said:
Why not run the minimum amount of programs ?
Click to expand...


Because the *number* you run doesn't matter. *Which* you run matters.

Why should a lot, or any for that matter, start when your not going to
use them, like the lame-o RealPlayer.
Click to expand...


If you're not going to use them, of course don't run them. And yes, Real
Player is good to get rid of. But don't get rid of something you find useful
just because it decreases the number. Get rid of it if the performance
penalty is greater than you're willing to accept. Not all background
programs have performance penalties.

You can spend a good half-a-day cleaning up a brand spanking new Dell
PC getting rid of all the crap-ware they install.
Click to expand...


I agree again. Dell, and many other OEMs install crapware. I'm all for
getting rid of crapware. What I'm against is getting rid of something useful
just because it reduces a number.
 
Because the *number* you run doesn't matter. *Which* you run matters.


If you're not going to use them, of course don't run them. And yes,
Real Player is good to get rid of. But don't get rid of something you
find useful just because it decreases the number. Get rid of it if the
performance penalty is greater than you're willing to accept. Not all
background programs have performance penalties.

I agree again. Dell, and many other OEMs install crapware. I'm all for
getting rid of crapware. What I'm against is getting rid of something
useful just because it reduces a number.
Click to expand...

I didn't mean to not run a useful program, but truthfully, I haven't
found many that have a 'Start When Windows Load' that I check.

I brought up the RealPlayer title because that is one of the cheesiest
one's out there. First, upon installation, it robs all of your
associations. Then, it sets itself to start automatically. I haven't had
that on my PC in a LONG time, but I remember it (at least) used to
recommend it to run at startup to make access faster when it is really
needed, and when it does start at boot time, it 'half-loaded' or
something to that effect.

My PC has very little starting up at boot time, and I only have 4 systray
icons.....AVG AV, MSAS, ZoneAlarm, and the volume control. It's not
unusual for someone asking me to help them with their computer and seeing
15 or 20 icons in the sys tray. Ridiculous.

Regards,

DanS
 
DanS said:
I didn't mean to not run a useful program, but truthfully, I haven't
found many that have a 'Start When Windows Load' that I check.
Click to expand...


That's fine, but what's useful to you and what's useful to someone else
isn't necessarily the same. My main point here is that everyone needs to
make hisr own decisions about this.


I brought up the RealPlayer title because that is one of the cheesiest
one's out there.
Click to expand...


Again, we agree completely on Real Player.

My PC has very little starting up at boot time, and I only have 4
systray icons.....AVG AV, MSAS, ZoneAlarm, and the volume control.
Click to expand...


If that's what works for you, then that's what *you* should have. Please
don't generalize from that that nobody else might find one, a few, or many,
others useful.

As I single example, I run a tiny background program called Allchars, which
manifests itself by an icon in the tray. It lets me type many common special
characters (many of these are used in other languages) by pressing the ctrl
key followed by a two character mnemonic combination. When I'm not using it
it has no measurable effect on performance (even when I do so, its effect is
tiny) and I find it useful. You may have no need to type such characters and
find it useless. Somebody who mistakenly thinks that the *number* of
background programs running is significant might want to remove this from my
computer, even though its a useful tool for me, and it has no impact on
performance.


It's not unusual for someone asking me to help them with their
computer and seeing 15 or 20 icons in the sys tray. Ridiculous.
Click to expand...


But there I completely disgaree. There's mothing ridiculous about any
particular number there. It depends entirely on what the icons represent.
Ignore how many there are. Get rid of the ones that hurt you, like Real
Player, and keep the ones that help you, like Allchars.
 
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