Speeding Up Windows XP Boot Up and Shutdown

There are several ways to increase the boot time. First Windows XP has a Prefetch
directory located in the Windows directory (c:\windows\prefetch). The use of the
prefetch directory is to hold cached information regarding recently accessed files.
Application as well as boot files are cached here. You can delete all the files
within the Prefetch directory as seen in the below image that will allow faster
boot times due to less file cache reading.

Another tweak you can perform regarding Prefatch is a registry entry. If you are
not familiar with editing the registry, please see the Microsoft knowledge base
article here:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;TR;322756

Within the registry, you can set prefetch to function in several different ways.
Prefetch can cache applications, boot up files, both, or you can disable it
completely. To improve boot speed set the following value in the registry to a
value of 2.(3 original)

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\

PrefetchParameters\EnablePrefetcher

If you are uncomfortable with editing the registry, download the following file
here (Prefetch_Registry.zip). Unzip it. Then double-clicking the resulting .REG
file to insert the entry into your computer�s registry. It will set the value to 2.

This should help you on your way to a speedier startup and shutdown in Windows XP.

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Disabling the System Boot Screen

So, are you enjoying the fun blue bars moving across your screen when your system
starts up? Not? Are you finding that you can live without the daily reminder that
you are running Windows XP? If so, then you might want to consider removing the
boot screen. One added advantage to doing so: You will be getting a boost of
performance in return.

Disabling the boot screen might only save you a fraction of a second off your boot
time. But keep in mind, every fraction of a second counts. And when you apply all
of the performance hacks listed in this part of the book, you will see a definite
performance increase.
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This performance improvement works on a very simple principle. It takes time for
the computer to do anything. Taking away some work that it has to do, such as
loading the boot screen, will free time that it can spend loading your system files
instead.

The process for disabling the system boot screen is similar to the process for
modifying the default operating system in the boot file. If you do not have any
other operating systems installed on your system, then you will have to create your
own boot.ini file to place in your drive root (that is, the c:\ drive). I am going
to show how to create a file first, and will then show how to modify the boot.ini
file if you already have one in your drive root or have multiple operating systems
installed.
Creating the boot.ini File
This section will show you how to create a boot.ini file for your computer if you
have just one operating system installed on your computer and you do not already
have a boot.ini file in your drive root. To get started, let's go over what the
boot.ini file looks like.

The boot.ini file that disables the boot screen looks like the following:

[boot loader]
timeout=0
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS [operating
systems]multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect /noguiboot

The above boot.ini file is all pretty much standard except for the adition of
the /noguiboot to the last line of the file. That is the parameter that tells
Windows to start up without using the graphical user interface boot screen. To get
started, open up a copy of Notepad found in the Accessories menu of the All
Programs entry in the Start Menu and follow the steps below:

1. On the first line of the file, type in [boot loader].

2. On line 2 of the file, key in timeout=0 so Windows does not show the boot
selection screen at all. You don't want this anyways since you only have one
operating system installed on your computer.
3. On line 3 of the file, type in default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\
WINDOWS so that Windows knows where to look on your hard drive to start the
operating system.
4. On line 4, type in [operating systems].
5. On line 5, type in multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft
Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /noguiboot to start up Windows with the
/noguiboot parameter to disable the boot screen.

Tip:
If you upgraded your computer from Windows 2000 or any other NT based product
and your root Windows directory is not Windows, then you will have to make one
change to the boot.ini file to correct where the path of the Windows files are
located. On Lines 3 and 5, replace all references to \WINDOWS to \WINNT or the name
of the directory to which you installed Windows. This will set your system to boot
from the right folder
6. Click on the File menu bar item and select Save As.
7. Type in Boot.ini in the File name box and change the Save as type to All
Files.
8. Then, change the Save in directory to your drive root, which is usually Local
Disk (C:).
9. Hit the save button and you are now finished.

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