I am running Windows XP Home Edition Version 2002 Service Pack 2 on a Dell Dimension 4600 Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.66GHz, 512 MB of RAM. I have Norton Internet Security. I hope that's enough info!

My system takes 6-7 minutes to start up. 2 minutes to boot and then 4-5 minutes to completely open and ready for use. Does anyone have any idea why it takes so long and what I can do about it?

Thanks

2 minutes to boot

Is this two minutes solely for the machine boot (POST (Power On Self Test) before Windows starts its load process?

I'd say Norton is responsible for a large portion of the Windows load time. (This presupposes that you don't have many things loading on Startup.)

Thanks for replying.
It takes approx 2 minutes from switching on power to the screen where users are shown and you log in - if that makes sense! I don't know how to check POST, sorry.

POST (Power On Self Test) is just that. The machine tests itself when you power it on. If the hardware is OK, the machine "hands over" the boot process to the O/S (Operating System) load/boot from the hard disk.

The first (usual) steps to reducing boot times is to;

1) Reduce the number of things that autoload at Startup.
Many people use MSCONFIG, STARTUP tab. However it's meant as a troubleshooting tool as opposed to a control tool. I use Mike Lin's STARTUP CONTROL PANEL. http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml


2) Delete Temp and Temporary Internet files etc.
A good (Clean/Freeware) tool is CCleaner.

http://www.ccleaner.com/download/
(Click on Download from FileHippo......, in the PayPal box)
Alternate download;
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4191.html

Once you download and install it, open the program then click on (on the left hand side) OPTIONS, then COOKIES. Any cookies you want to save (trusted sites, places you have usernames/passwords), highlight them in the left column, then (using the directional arrows between the panes), move them to the right hand column under "Cookies to keep".

Still under Options, click on Advanced. Remove the check mark from the box for "Only delete files in Windows Temp folders older than 48 hours"

Then click on Cleaner (on the top left). When that window opens, click on Run Cleaner (bottom right of the window.)

When it finishes, close CCleaner, and restart your machine.

(Some files will not be deleted until a restart is performed.)


3) Defrag your O/S partition.
Some alternate defrag programs;
http://www.auslogics.com/en/software...efrag/download

http://www.iobit.com/iobitsmartdefrag.html#

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Diskeeper_Lite_d1207.html

http://www.kessels.com/JkDefrag/


See if these three measures speed things up. Post back with your results and any further questions.