No one likes pressing the power button and then waiting around for the system to become usable. Windows does offer a feature called Fast Startup to help with it. But the truth is, it creates a lot of unexpected problems by preventing a full shutdown, which is why it’s best to stay away from it.
That doesn’t mean you have to wait through longer boot times, though. There are several other things you can try, like optimizing startup apps and services, tweaking BIOS settings, and adjusting the paging file size. All of this can reduce the time it takes for your PC to get to the desktop and become usable.
Turn on fast boot in BIOS
Skip unnecessary checks
Screenshot by Yasir Mahmood
Windows’ fast startup may not be ideal for reducing the boot time, but there’s another similarly named feature that can be. Fast Boot in the BIOS or UEFI firmware shortens the hardware initialization phase that happens as soon as you turn on your PC.
When your PC starts, the motherboard performs a series of checks to ensure all the hardware components like the keyboard, memory, graphics card, and hard drive are alive and working. This happens even before Windows starts booting. You can see how long this takes by checking the Last BIOS Time in the Task Manager.
Enabling fast boot in BIOS trims down that process. Instead of fully checking every device during every boot, the firmware skips or shortens some checks. In a way, your system moves from the power button to the Windows loading screen much faster.
You can enable this option by entering your PC’s BIOS or UEFI settings. The exact process of doing that may vary, but it’s usually a matter of pressing a key like Del, F2, or F10 during the boot. Once inside, turn on an option called Fast Boot, Ultra Fast Boot, or something similar.
Limit the number of startup apps
Cut down on apps competing during boot
If there’s one thing that affects your PC’s boot time the most, it’s the number of startup apps. If too many apps and programs are configured to run at startup, each one adds a few extra seconds. It’s simple: the more apps you have starting automatically, the longer it takes for Windows to boot.
You may not realize this, but a lot of apps add themselves to the startup list as soon as you install them. Sometimes it makes sense. Apps like your clipboard manager, email client, and cloud backup tool usually need to run in the background, so everything works smoothly from the get-go. But most other apps don’t need to run automatically. Screenshot tools, game launchers, and even your browser can wait until you actually need them.
These apps don’t just affect the boot time. Once they launch, they continue to run in the background unless you close them manually. Thankfully, Windows can tell you which apps affect the startup time the most. Open the Task Manager, switch to the Startup apps tab, and check the Startup impact of each app that says “Enabled.” Go through the list and disable the ones you don’t need.
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Disable unwanted services
Why launch features you don’t use
Much like apps, there are also background services that start as soon as your PC boots up. These services handle various features on your PC, like printing, mobile hotspot, telemetry, updates, and more. Sure, the impact of these services is not the same as apps, but when there are dozens of services configured to run at startup, they do affect the overall boot time.
And the thing is, you probably don’t need that many services running automatically at boot. For instance, if you don’t use a printer at all, you can safely stop the Print Spooler service from running at startup. Similarly, if you don’t need Windows’ hotspot feature, Windows Mobile Hotspot Service can be turned off. There’s even the Connected User Experience and Telemetry service, which is only there to send diagnostic data to Microsoft.
These are just a few examples. If you open the Services app on your PC, and you’ll see dozens of background services running at startup. Disable the ones you don’t need, and it should shorten the boot time. They’ll also help your PC run better in general.
Of course, you need to be careful while doing this and understand what it is the process does. Disabling critical services can cause important Windows features to break or trigger errors. But yes, as long as you do it right, the results should be positive.
Adjust paging file settings
Prevent Windows from constantly resizing virtual memory
Screenshot by Pankil Shah — No attribution required
The paging file, also known as virtual memory, is a section of your storage that Windows uses as extra memory when your RAM starts to fill up. Normally, Windows manages the paging file automatically, and for most people, that actually works fine. But sometimes the automatic setting can cause Windows to increase the paging file size more than necessary. And this can cause problems.
To fix this, open the virtual memory settings on your PC, and uncheck Automatically manage paging file size for all drives. Then, choose your C: drive and select Custom size. Then, set the Initial Size and Maximum Size as per the recommended values that appear in the same window. This will ensure the paging file size is large enough without becoming unnecessarily oversized. Restart your PC, and it should make a difference in the overall boot time.
The above tips are great, but if you want the fastest possible startup experience, nothing comes close to hibernation. Its main benefit is that it saves the full system state and restores it when you power the PC back on, so you can pick up where you left off.
