About Technology

By Gaelim Holland

There are literally thousand of processes working harmoniously during the startup and shutdown of your Windows XP operating system. Each programs must wait in line during both the starting and closing of your computer. The more processes and programs you add the longer you have to wait. This causes slow startup or shutdown problems due to your CPU's inability to cue programs efficiently.

However, we have to factor in lack of maintenance, driver complications, and spyware as possible culprit for slow startup and shutdown problems. Although these problems can often be linked to a single cause. There are steps needed to improve each. However, this article will give you some great tips to help eliminate slow startup and shutdown problems.

Speed Up a Slow Startup

Its important to make your starting process more efficient. During the startup, your computer goes through a power test in order to makes sure all hardware is on. Next the system moves to the computer's basic configuration known as the BIOS( Basic Input and Output System ). Once these test are passed, Windows loads and searches the computer's registry files for all installed programs. This brings us to Tip#1

Clean and organize your system registry—This is the major cause of slow startup and shutdown problems.

The registry is a storehouse of all the settings for files, events, installs and uninstalls on your computer. The registry can become extremely bloated and corrupted. Registry entries become useless after uninstalls, some entries are duplicated and even become corrupted. This environment makes it more difficult for CPU to find files efficiently. Your computer system will gradually slow and eventually chokes. You can clean an organize your registry with a registry cleaner. This is a best way to stop slow startups.

Now that system's registry configuration checks are complete, all the programs and services begin to load. As mentioned before all these programs must wait in a cue. If there are many programs loading you will definitely have to wait on a slow startup and have shutdown problems. It's very important to manage your startup programs to avoid waiting around for your computer for Windows to finally load or log off. You can manage your startup configuration by following the instructions below:

1.Open your “Start” menu.
2. Click “Run”
3. In the command screen type "msconfig.exe"
4. In the "system configuration utility", click "startup" tab
5. Uncheck all programs that your are no longer using.
6. Click "OK"

You will immediately notice some programs that you wish to banish. However it can be difficult to discern what programs are needed. Anything with Windows in the title is of course a windows process. Eliminate these from your startup configuration with caution. Visit the Manage Your Startup page for a list of programs that are unnecessary for startup. Keep an eye on your startup. Spyware programs can easily sneak themselves into your configuration and can cause slow startup problems.

Shutting Down Slow Shutdown Problems.

Your computer's shutdown process is not nearly as complicated as your startup. All programs must be shutdown one at a time. Also all services must be shutdown. Services are not always loaded at startup. Many are loaded as other programs are opened or are scheduled. All plethora of services is a recipe for shutdown problems.

You can view the process on your computer by using Windows Task Manager. Open up Task Manager by pressing Crtl-Alt-Delete at the same time. Then by clicking the “processes” tab. You will be surprised to see how many services are actually running in the background. Again some easily recognizable such as your anti-virus program. However, some will be foreign even spyware programs. An easy way to discover the meaning behind all those services use the run command: services. msc.

1.Open your “Start” menu.
2. Click “Run”
3. In the command screen type "services.msc"
4.This will bring up the services window. If you drag the mouse to one of the services. It will give you a detailed explanation of the service in question. By right clicking the individual service you can stop the service immediately.

Shutdown problems can also be cause by hardware conflicts. If you have recently installed new hardware this can cause major shutdown problems. Device drivers allow Windows to communicate with your hardware. Upon shutdown, if there is some miscommunication, your operating system will cause shutdown problems or even freeze. Check your device drivers for any errors which are indicated by an yellow exclamation mark or an X. Following the below instructions to evaluate the driver:

1.Click “Start”
2.Click “Control Panel”
3.Click “System”
4.In the System menu, click the “hardware” tab
5.Click Device Manager to bring up a full list of installed hardware drivers.
6.Right click and choose “Properties” to evaluate the status and troubleshoot the hardware device.