5… 10… 50… 100… 500… Hey, What are these numbers? Don’t scratch your head!!!
How much time have you been waiting for the computer to boot up? Ha, ha, now I see you are smiling! This is why you have come to this post. I’ve been researching the Net and Googling some forums to get the answers for this $100 question! What are some ways to improve the boot times of Windows 8 or 8.1? I won’t provide an unexpected answer to this topic, but I will inform you about a Microsoft tool that assists in troubleshooting such issues. Answer, later in this post!
First of all, there are several scenarios!
- Is your boot time slow after shutdown?
- Or is it after a restart?
- Or is it slow after hibernation?
- Is it slow after sleep?
You can see my previous post on this subject for a tool to check boot times in Windows. This tool will help you visually, without any commands (a clean interface), to check how many seconds your computer takes to boot up in the different cases I listed above.
But first let me tell you my experience with this boot issue.
Why did I get irritated with Windows 8.1 64-bit at startup?
I don’t remember how exactly, but I was able to improve my boot speeds on my 32-bit Windows 8.1 OS. It was taking like 45 seconds to boot up. When I checked others on the BootRacer site, I found that some computers were even able to boot up in 7 to 8 seconds. Wow! That’s really fast…
I have a dual-boot configuration scenario. On one side is 32-bit Windows 8.1, and on the other is 64-bit Windows 8. My irritation started when the 64-bit was taking, like, 2 minutes or so to boot up. In addition to that, the computer started freezing after the boot-up was over. It would last for about 6-10 minutes. I don’t know exactly how to check that!
Why did I update from 8 to 8.1 on my 64-bit version?
One remedy I hypothesized was that the latest updates would likely decrease my boot times and solve my performance issues. Na, it was not the case-to-be. The problems still persisted, and the same with the freezing issue, indicating that the updates did not address the underlying performance problems I was experiencing. So now I polished off the case that it was an update problem, just like doctors do.
I also updated the 64-bit system with the latest Update 1 release and several other updates.
What to do initially when Windows 8 or 8.1 boot times are slow?
The first thing many Windows 7, Vista, and XP users know is to switch off some start-up applications and tablet apps. It applies to Windows ‘Metro‘ also. You can check the article on “Task Manager” to see how it is done in Windows 8 or 8.1. A slight change is there on how to go to “msconfig” or disable start-up items, which now requires accessing the Settings app and navigating to the appropriate section instead of using the traditional method in earlier versions of Windows.
The second step is to disable services that are hogging your resources. 64-bit OSs have many services whose startup type is “Automatic” or “Automatic (Delayed Start).” ” Some of them can be safely turned to “Manual” or “Disabled.”
But which one to and which one not to? You can follow this tutorial on your 8.1 computer. For 8 32-bit and 64-bit service configurations, you check Google with this query: “startup services to disable in Windows 8.” The search provides a good list of websites, which I checked. Otherwise, you can check the above site to find further information.
Another important step that you have not done is to check your computer for viruses, malware, adware, Trojans, and rootkits. This guide is a helpful article from Microsoft in such scenarios. Many of the forums suggest you submit your antivirus trace logs using different programs, which may be beneficial in the rarest of cases. Most of the current antivirus, Internet security, and cloud-protection software products are able to nullify, or eliminate, most of your problems if you are infected with malware.
One ambiguous step I don’t recommend is turning off “Pagefile” and disabling the “Superfetch” and “Windows Search” services. I found some resources to utilize this tip to improve boot speeds and computer performance. But there are pros and cons to using this step. I found some improvement in boot times when I applied the above step. That’s why I call the result a confusing footprint in your troubleshooting heuristics.
But it was not consistent, and I also need to search for faster execution of my computer commands, which may involve exploring additional optimization techniques or software solutions to enhance overall system performance.
What’s the Best Solution to Solve Your Windows 8 or 8.1 32-Bit or 64-Bit Boot Problems?
Hmm. You are waiting for an answer. If this problem truly bothers you, you’ll be waiting. Otherwise you might have left this post by now. It’s called “Windows 8 Performance Toolkit.” Yes, the process will be a little tricky! Why? Downloading this tool requires a reliable internet connection and sufficient bandwidth, as well as significant time to generate logs and analytical skills to interpret the reports.
I’m not a technical geek or expert in this scenario. All that I find is based on my own experience and some research on Google, which may not always provide comprehensive or accurate information about the tool’s functionalities and best practices.
This tool was also called “Xperf” in earlier versions of Windows. Now it’s known by the shorter names—WPT (Windows Performance Toolkit), WPR (Windows Performance Recorder), and WPA (Windows Performance Analyzer). It’s part of a bigger package called “Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit” (ADK).
To my knowledge, you must download ADK to get the WPT tool, so someone can comment on this post for a better link. You can choose to download several other tools or only WPT.
The download size was around 3.2 GB (WPT only) (don’t be fooled by the setup file size, which is only 1.2 MB), and the size is bigger if you want to download other tools. The download took a long time on my 2 Mbps connection, unlike other downloads, because I used Microsoft’s download tool. I did observe similar behavior with some of the official Microsoft downloads.
You can use this tutorial on how to install this tool. As a guide to analyze your reports using WPT, these case studies would be useful.
- Analyzing a Slow Boot with Windows Performance Recorder & Analyzer
- How can you resolve the issue of extremely high disk activity in Windows 8?
My Experience in solving Windows 8 or 8.1 Boot Problems
From the case studies I have studied above, I observed that platter drives (old HDD hard disks) are the cause of boot issues in Windows 8 and 8.1 64-bit OS. See this comment on one of the above posts, which will make you agree to what I say.
Don’t come to a conclusion. This could be the sole reason for the issue.
As stated above, if you replaced your old HDD with an SSD (solid state drive) and are still experiencing problems, it can be related to drivers and updates. Always it’s best to check the compatibility of your driver for Windows 8 and 8.1. Also, sometimes updates can cause problems after installation.
So was I able to solve the boot issue?
A sort of… Why? My current Windows 8.1 64-bit system takes approximately 120 seconds to boot. That is the same as I mentioned earlier. I was unable to implement the solution I proposed because of lack of funds. So unless I get a solid-state drive (SSD) and test the boot times, I cannot confidently say that is the problem.
What was the alternative?
The best thing I observed was that my boot times after shutdown and hibernate are not really affected by my existing 80 GB HDD (hard disk drive) on which my Windows 8.1 64-bit OS (operating system) resides. I was quickly able to come to the desktop screen after hibernate and shutdown (around 40 secs). The problem is only with restarting. So, as an alternative, I decided to restart less frequently.
What else did I do?
Also, I uninstalled the default Metro apps, which were not working, and reinstalled them. I also disabled and enabled the “Turn on fast startup (recommended)” at boot times to see if there was any change.
I also analyzed the reports from the WPR tool. The log was about 3 GB, and WPA (Windows Performance Analyzer) was used to view it.
The Windows Performance Recorder (WPR) will ask you for some options to check before you record the logs. Once given, it will restart three times, each time recording the boot scenario. Those logs are stored as files with the .etl extension. There will be 3 files. Double-clicking the file will automatically open Windows Performance Analyzer (WPA).
The above screenshot is one of the logs opened. As you can see above, the Storage tab shows that it’s full of disk activity during boot-up. If you click the arrow next to it, you’ll see some more options that allow you to analyze the disk activity in greater detail. Under File I/O, I checked the Size by Process, Duration by Process, and Count by Process windows.
You just have to drag and drop that window from the left onto the right side for a detailed view.
As you can see, the “System“ process is taking considerable hard-disk resources and time during the start-up. You can examine these logs in more detail for additional research if you are an administrator or expert.
Note: Some important confidential data about your computer may be present in these logs, so don’t share them with third parties.
I found that my memory and CPU were ok during boot-up using these reports.
The Ending
I want to conclude this article, saying that too much analyzing the reports is a waste of time. It’s more beneficial to post in forums such as eightforums.com, tomshardware.com, or superuser.com, which provide valuable resources on this topic.
It almost took 3 days to conclude conscientiously and agree that there is some other problem “alien” to my current expertise. So I decided to stop researching this topic and start working on my other jobs.
Please share this post in your circles, tweet it, and recommend it if you really like what I wrote. Commenting is not a bad option. Also let me know whether your problems subsided if you followed the above solutions. Was it simple to use the WPR? How successful were you in analyzing its reports?
:- Cheers.
I read your tutorial and other interesting this on this page because it interested me, but not cause my Computers are having them issues. But I enjoy,, listening, learning, and reading for broader knowledge of other issues that plague Computers. I enjoyed reading your Tutorial, and Thank You for sharing your IT experience..
run this, 2 times, and bingo all times are there, in seconds.
effortless. and free, for 14 days.
no, this is not spam, its just a retired person (mr. clean) for years. and years.
try it. or post something that is easy to do, I did try, MS WPR, and is tedious at best.
for sure geek only.
Sometimes that problem is because the correct hard drive is not on #1 boot device on your BIOS
Goto BIOS (F2 or delete)
Look into Bios Priority
If needed go to “Advanced Mode” – “Boot” – “Boot option Priorities”
Check on “Boot Option #1” if the correct hard drive is set
If your HD is not showing in “Boot Option #1” go to “Hard Drive BBS Priorities” and change the order
Save and Enjoy 🙂
Many times what actually makes Windows 8 and 8.1 slow isn’t what you think it is. More times than not Windows Update can silently fail and of course another problem is not necessarily having corrupt drivers or drivers not loading but the security descriptors are fudged or missing. What Microsoft will then do upon boot and shutdown or reboot is try to fix this issue on the fly (stupid, I know) and then if it can, it will load it’s own generic drivers that may not play to well with your system, hence a hang or a really slow operation.
Sure, having problems with the common virus / trojans and other malware does happen often enough but with using a good security suite that is updated regularly (pulse updates enabled), this is less of an issue, assuming you do allow your system to be scanned and not just updated, that is.
I advise against using “msconfig”, as Black Viper states, use “services.msc” instead, note, make sure you click on each service though, because it will tell you the what-ifs, not all configurations are exactly the same.
The one thing that really slows down all Microsoft installations starting with Windows 2000 and up is the .NET mscorsvw series optimizing services. What it’s supposed to do is tweak and tune the Microsoft applications and sub-assemblies to make them faster and more memory efficient after doing a Windows Update. My own experiences with programming for Microsoft based machines and as a hardware engineer is that is completely bogus. There has never been a memory leak free Microsoft application or library, it doesn’t tweak those assemblies like they claim.
I’ve actually shut down all those mscorsvw as a test to see if it would break my system, I never had trouble with it after I disabled it. It uses a lot of CPU processing power and it’s supposed to stop after it’s done in about half an hour but sometimes it gets “stuck” if there is an error in the sub-assembly that wasn’t detected before it started, it will continue indefinitely until you pull the plug or force a reboot. This can also affect you when trying to shuitdown as well.
Now, as far as pagefile.sys is concerned, if you’re not a techhead like me and don’t know what you’re doing, don’t mess with it, please! The only time you turn that off is when you have more memory than you need in your computer and when you have a RAM based cache drive (non Microsoft type of course, either using it for a server or for gaming). Turning off the pagefile can be used for troubleshooting, too but that’s advanced stuff I won’t get into in this post.
As far as “Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit“. (ADK) is concerned, only qualified technicians, engineers and power users should be using those tools, not noobs, that’s playing with fire if you do. ADK is designed to get customized disks ready for deployment on a mass scale, like in corporations with many desktop and server PCs with identical configurations in software and hardware.
One sure fire way to speed up your computer is to login locally, making sure your computer boots in local mode instead of cloud mode, if there is a problem in the cloud or your Internet connection is gone goofy, this can slow your boot time to a crawl and same with trying to get out of the cloud to shutdown or reboot.
I actually tell people to avoid Windows 8 and 8.1 because of the cloud problems, rather just use Windows 7 x64 Premium Home or Professional, Ultimate is too expensive and is a joke.
There is another tool that is quite good for rooting out problems your anti-virus and anti-malware can’t get rid of, look up ADWCleaner, it’s from France.
I should note that I don’t use Microsoft Windows at home, I prefer Xubuntu 14.04 (a branch / fork of Ubuntu 14.04 Linux), I use a i686 kernel, I can use 32-bit applications but still access up to 64 Gigabytes of RAM and not run in 64-bit compatibility mode to get a half-arse support for 32-bit applications.
Granted, Linux is not Microsoft Windows but it’s nice not having to use all the extra applications on top of Linux vs. people in MS-Windows.
First of all its good to go to control panel and install updates ( important updates) via win update. Secondly use programs such as CCleaner to clean useless files and registry.
Now while updating to 8.1 from store try to let it complete without any interference or disturbance.
After upate complete ur boot up may be slow, So for improvement follow the steps:
1) Go to Control Panel and install updates ( important updates) via win update.
2) Check if all the drivers are working properly. (reinstall if necessary), especially Display Drivers
3) use programs such as CCleaner to clean useless files and registry.
4) Go to disk cleanup and clean the disks.(also clean system files– select all boxes).
5) Restart. (Repeat the processes at regular intervals)
Got the same problems 4 times with upading win 8.1 as urs.
Following the above steps improved my pc bootup even faster than win 8.