Windows start up time

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September 20, 2006 · Filed Under Technology and Gadgets

OK, so I now have a laptop with a cutting edge cpu, lots of ram, a fast hard disk and a reasonable graphics card, so why is it still so slow? Let me make myself a bit clearer, it’s not slow to open applications and to apply graphics effects but it is slow in starting up and shutting down, and I have not even begun to install the server software and other gubbins which I run for web site development purposes.

I would like a PC which starts instantly, like our telly. Surely this would not be so difficult to do. Oh I know that I can use standby and the odd hibernate settings, but I don’t want to. I just want everything up and running instantly. At present this seems to be too much to ask. My pocket pc switches on instantly, my mp3 player comes on instantly, even my mobile phones switch on quickly, so why not my dual core Windows pc?

Maybe I’m alone in thinking this, but I think a lot of people would appreciate not having to wait while Windows wakes up. I know PC’s are complex devices and lots of things need to be initiated and all that, but the routines are the same every-time. Would it not be possible to use fast flash memory to take a snapshot of windows and then, simply (!!!???) transfer this snapshot to ram when the ‘on’ key is pressed? I don’t know, I’m not a technician or a windows programmer, by I bet there is a way.

We are about to be hit with Vista, the latest and greatest version of Microsoft’s’ finest, but its appearance does not fill me with enthusiasm. It’s not new enough, it just seems, from what I’ve read to be a hardware hungry bells and whistles makeover and will run as slowly as all other versions of windows in the start up and shut down phases, unless you have a terabyte of ram, a 10ghz cpu and a 100,000rpm hard disk.

Roll on solid state memory, is what I say. I would also love to see another new OS on the market, something which runs rings around windows in terms of overall speed, no matter what you want to do. Will this ever happen? Well, with Microsoft so well entrenched, it seems a little unlikely, although all those multi-platform Open Source applications make raise the probability a wee bit.

Computers are a little like cars in many ways. The basic way in which they function has not really changed (transistors), but unlike cars (infernal combustion engine), computers should be made to run as fast as is feasible.

I am probably just being too picky. PC’s are amazing things and allow many of us to do things which we could only have dreamt about before.

End of moan.

PS no more blue screens so far, but I did get an odd error message from Dell’s very own network assistant, so maybe the ram is not 100% right.

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3 Responses to “Windows start up time”

Caesar on September 21st, 2006 2:09 am

Try using hibernate (right click your desktop, select properties, then the screensaver tab, then power settings and finally hibernate). It speeds start up times a lot.
Alex on September 21st, 2006 3:14 pm

Caesar - you are right! Thanks. I had heard of hibernate, but was not exactly sure what the difference was between it and ’standby’. Can you pull out the power when your PC is hibernating? And how long will the battery on my laptop be able to keep the thing hibernating? All winter - like bears???;-)

Alex
Caesar on September 21st, 2006 11:23 pm

Here is the explanation by Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/mobility/getstarted/hibernate.mspx

The word “hibernate” is a bit misleading. What happens is it takes a snapshot of your system. It then powers off your system. When you start up again it resumes where you left off. So yeah, like a bear…