Well, you are not alone with this problem but fortunately, with some minor tweaks, you can get your sluggish Windows to start much faster without re-installing Windows or adding any new hardware.
The logic is fairly simple. Your computer loads quite a few software programs and services during start-up (look at all the icons in your Windows System tray). If you can trim this list, your computer’s boot time will decrease.
I have been testing a free utility called Soluto and it helped reduce the start-up time of my Windows computer from 3.15 minutes to around 1.25 minutes. All this with a few easy clicks and without confusing the user with any technical jargon.
After you install Soluto, it sorts your start-up programs list into three categories:
- No-brainer – remove these programs from start-up with giving a second thought.
- Potentially removable – another list of start-up programs that may also be removed provided you know what these programs do.
- Required – Certain programs and services are required to run Windows properly and therefore should not be removed.
Depending upon the software app, you may then either choose “Pause” to completely remove that app from the start-up queue or choose “Delay” when you want the app to run automatically but not immediately at start-up. Soluto will launch the “delayed” app once the boot up is over and your system is idle.
You can also hover the mouse over any program name and Soluto will display the number of seconds that the app adds to the start-up time. And don’t bother about making mistakes because Soluto has a useful “Undo all” feature that will restore the start-up list to the original state with a click.
Once you are done classifying your start-up programs list, reboot the computer and you should notice a difference between the start-up time.
Where to download Soluto?
The official site for Soluto is soluto.com but in order to download the program, you should head over to mysoluto.com.
Alternatives to Soluto
If you are tech-savvy, you can also use a utility like Sysinternals Autoruns to manually prevent all the non-essential Windows processes and programs from running at start-up.
Just uncheck all the Autorun entries and Services that you don’t wish to load at startup and reboot your system. You’ll however need a separate program to get the “delay” feature which is so handy in Solute.
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Reader Comments
I wouldn’t promote a site that isn’t functioning…when I went to sign up I got a message that it was still in beta and I might hear from them in a couple of weeks
Written by Robert Brooks on 08.31.10
Thanks for the tip. All the programs that get themselves to come alive during startup are a pain. I haven’t really got around to looking them up manually; now that there is something that can show me all, I am downloading it.
Written by Arun on 08.31.10
It is not getting installed on my PC. it is giving an error 72148.
Written by Nitin on 08.31.10
Robert – The site is functioning .. it’s just that you have to download the Soluto installer from one of their sister sites at mysoluto.com
Nitin – Do you have admin access on your system? Are you trying to install Soluto on a supported system? Are you sure that your firewall or anti-virus program is not blocking the installation?
Written by Amit on 08.31.10
Nice Utility. Brought down my boot time from 2:52 to 2:23 with number of applications coming down from 74 to 49
The example Snapshot of Soluto in your article is puzzling. It shows time brought down from 1:35 to 1:02 whereas it shows applications have grown from 49 to 62 on boot!!! How can the increase in application on boot bring down the booting time ;)
Written by Punit Singh on 09.01.10
Soluto seems to be good utility. I have to give it a try. I use Webroot Spysweeper for anti-spyware and it has an option (or shield as they call it) to unselect startup programs that you don’t need. Also it notifies whenever any program tries to add programs to startup. I have been using Spysweeper for a very long time and I use this feature quite a bit to keep my startup items to the minimal.
Written by Raj on 09.01.10
The application totally failed to work. After wasting an hour trying to get it to work I opted to uninstall the application. Unfortunately after I uninstalled the application my PC booted far, far slower than before trying the application.
Now that things are finally back to “normal” my advice is this. Don’t waste your time trying the application until after it’s out of beta and widely available.
Written by John Bates on 09.01.10
@Punit – The screenshot is just for illustration purpose.
@Raj – The problem with utilities like Spysweeper, Autoruns, etc. is that they aren’t for non-tech savvy user. What if shut down an important Windows service that’s essential for your computer to boot properly. It’s difficult to run into such a problem with Soluto.
@JohnB – Sorry to hear that it’s not working for you. Can you run AutoRuns to see what’s adding to your start-up time.
Written by Amit on 09.01.10
You don’t need any third party installers or software, go to ‘start’ ‘run’ for vista or older, for win 7 just go start, type in msconfig , window opens, go to the startup tab, scroll through the list removing the tick from any program you recognise for example yahoo, messenger etc etc, do not remove the anti virus software you have installed from the startup though. If you download and delete hefty files then make sure you defrag your system at least once a month, as with anything general maintenance helps.
Written by dave on 09.01.10
nice and an easy to use thing but the same thing can be done without installation of soluto or any other software,just type msconfig in the command prompt box and go to startup tab in the dialog box.