When you first turn on your computer, the operating system has to go through a boot up process to load up all the important program files, system files and drivers. You may have noticed over the months or years that the computer boots slow. Two common reasons for this is due to the startup items or registry corruption. This article will explore startup items and registry corruption on how it relates to why a computer boots slow.
Startup items are called because of what it means: programs that execute when you boot up your computer. These come in different shapes or forms: system tray icons or invisible background tasks. You may see a splash screen that shows that a program gets loaded when you boot your PC. So how do you know which ones are running? If you are using Windows XP or Vista, you can see the startup items by going to Start >> Run and typing MSCONFIG. You can also use the Autoruns program from Microsoft (It's free so just do a search on Microsoft.com) if you have Windows 2000 and below. Sometimes a computer boots slow because of all these unnecessary startup items running when you start your computer.
Registry corruption is another common cause for your computer boot slow. This is due to the fact that over time your registry collects a lot of entries that either do not exist anymore or gets corrupt. Sometimes, boot up will be slow due to the fact that the registry is linking to a DLL file that does not exist anymore. You can resolve this issue by getting a registry cleaner that will do weekly scans to keep your registry clean of any errors.
So I've just told you a couple of reasons of why a computer boots slow. Too many or unnecessary startup items tend to take a lot of time to load when you boot up your PC. Registry corruption is another likely cause that leads to slow boot ups. By understanding these two reasons, you have taken the step to troubleshooting your slow computer issues.