I remember being amazed at the difference in how long it took my new computer to be ready to go after I hit the power button, compared to my old one. Well, now I've had this beast for about a year and a half and I noticed it seems to take longer to boot up. It'll just sit there for a few minutes with a blank screen or with my desktop background loaded, before everything else comes alive and I can use it. I haven't really added anything to it, so startup programs should be minimal. Though I have been ignoring acrobat reader, firefox, and java update notifications for a few months...Is there anything else I should be checking?

Disk Defragment

I've got an old laptop that'll boot in <20 seconds ..

Disk Defragment

Done automatically once a week.

because...you have more things loading now than when you got it....

http://www.latinoreview.com/images/user/picard-facepalm.jpg

because...i said in my original post that i do not.

Are you sure? How did you make sure? And what disk fragmenting program do you use?

just the one built into windows. also did disk cleanup that removed like a gig of temp files and whatnot.

You still have more processes loading. Those processes are loading more info. Something may try to access files in use already. Something may be trying to connect to the internet.

Theres tons of reasons.

Actually, your statement is quite Flase, my system boots faster then Vista on a HP laptop.
(my System P3 1Ghz, 14 Gig (C:)4200rpm HDD, 512 Ram 100mhz)
The reason is, i take care of it and defrag it daily. (i use my HDD like a freak)

Hint: AWC 3.0

format and see if it feels like it's new again.

Use HiJackThis to see processes running in the background. I'm assuming you've already checked the startup processes in msconfig..

I suspect the antivirus program at startup is the culprit.

Check the number of services set to auto-start. Try booting with only the essential ones.

Don't the registry files end up slowing you down the most? Try transferring all your programs to a new user, make it a system administrator, and delete the old user. That should make fresh registry files and delete all the bullshit.

I once did an experiment.

This experiment involved using as much portable software as possible. Software designed to be run off a pen drive or what have you, without installing. It seems to make a huge difference. Some programs being installed make minor changes to your system. Over time, they really add up, causing a major clusterfuck.

I'd recommend Run>type msconfig> startup> uncheck a bunch of the unnecessary shit

I think it is something to do with windows?
Apparently with Linux it does not slow with age,

We don't need another Prometheum here.

Apparently, init is not part of Linux.
Acolyte idiot.

Well I went into msconfig and unchecked some stuff in startup, but there wasn't really that much there. Shit like quicktime, itunes (fucking apple shit), windows defender...all shit that i had previously unchecked and somehow came back anyway. I've never used hijackthis on this computer, guess I'll run that soon.

Get a mac. They just work.

Until you need a new CD drive and find out that Macs are a bitch to replace hardware components.

Until you need a new CD drive and find out that Macs are a bitch to replace hardware components.
The cd drives don't break in the first place. They just work.

The cd drives don't break in the first place. They just work.

Heres the problem. Some people, like you, think that macs are impervious to any form of destruction. Fact is, they are made from the same components of just about any other computer. They break. They don't "just" work. Pull your head out of your ask.

*posted from a mac*