2) When new programs are added / removed from Vista (yes, even Windows updates), SuperFetch will take extra time on the next several boots to optimize loading. Super-fetch catalogues what’s on your computer, and how often you use it, pre-loading .dll’s and such into memory behind the scenes so opening those frequently used apps is faster. SuperFetch can bog down your computer some while doing this, especially if you’ve made some radical changes (EG: uninstalled 5 apps and installed 3 apps before next boot.) If you shutdown & boot in between uses like I do, then SuperFetch will stay abreast of changes often, not taking much time during boot. But if you reboot once in a blue moon, SuperFetch may add on several minutes to your boot time as it takes in changes you’ve made.

3) Depending on your Vista version, there may be lots of default services loading up which you don’t need. For instance, mine was loading all kinds of Windows Media Player services to share media files and generally use the box as a media server and/or DVR. I don’t do any of that with my comp, so I deactivated them. You can google Black Viper’s Vista Services, since he’s already done some digging on which you can safely disable. Should help out.

4) Sadly, Vista still inherits XP’s lame way of loading up software & services. You can get to a login prompt fairly quick, but once you log in, it THEN proceeds to load up a bunch of services and stuff. Even services which all users should use (EG: Anti-Virus which has been installed system-wide for all users), it waits until someone logs in before loading up those apps/services. This seems a bit stupid from an execution stand-point. You’d think that common start-up apps/services which all users would use (or have forced upon them, like anti-virus), would load before the login prompt shows up. But that’s not the case. So, you quickly get the login prompt, then tend to wait a long time for the desktop to show up. And, even though the desktop shows up, a lot of apps (especially third-party apps, like anti-virus) set their services/etc to Normal Execution Priority … in essence you’re all at the same CPU trough trying to get resources. Since apps loaded on the machine run at system speed, they can quickly hog all the CPU resources before you get a chance to click around. For the most part, this is out of Microsoft’s control, unless they did something that forced pre-loading services & apps to use a lesser prioritization, hence you would have priority to use the desktop while these behind-the-scenes things would use up the leftover CPU cycles you’re not using. But, that’s not the case. So, your desktop shows up and typically sits there, frozen up while all these other services/apps get prioritization to CPU cycles over you. And for some stupid reason CTRL+ALT+DEL to bring up the task manager doesn’t act like an instant stop, letting you have full control … you still have to wait for things to settle down before the Task Manager will come up. I personally see this as a design flaw.

So, it’s sort of a good idea / bad execution thing. They load up this stuff after you login when some of it could have been loaded before (especially hoggy things, like anti-virus). The show you the desktop since the idea is for you to be able to work while stuff loads behind-the-scenes. But since all third-party programmers think their program is the most important, they code them to suck up tons of resources freezing up your desktop for minutes on end while they do their thing. (Anti-Virus is very bad about this, which is why I think it should load before the login prompt shows up, not after you login). It’s just a series of things that can contribute to overall system slow down.

What you can do is START > RUN… > MSCONFIG, and go to the “startup” tab. Lots of third-party programs want to install services and startup apps and task bar crap these days (again, all third-party vendors are narrow-minded, thinking your comp running their software is the most important thing it’s ever going to do). You can uncheck stupid startup stuff, like task bar printer controllers, yahoo IM, etc … stupid crap that wants to auto-load that you don’t care about or don’t use. (If you have more than 10 task bar icons…you need to seriously trim down some of that startup crap.) You can also look at the services to see what bizarre stuff is running. However, to shut down and disable them, I’d recommend going through CONTROL PANEL > ADMIN > SERVICES. That way you’re shutting them off for good. See what’s running and tweak as necessary.

EG: I installed Logitech drivers/software for a web-cam. This thing installed 3-4 services, and a startup app that loads into my taskbar for a quick-cam menu. I could give a crap about that stuff. So, I shut off everything except what was needed to make the camera functional.

It’s annoying, but you really just have to be diligent about what’s installing on your comp (as a service AND as a startup), what’s loading at startup, etc.

Likewise, Vista has relegated some things that used to be services off scheduled tasks. Some of these are designed to run at start up. So, the task scheduler could be kicking off one-time run events that just run at startup, but don’t need to stay running when done. Likewise, Vista has an extended logging system, which can bog down a little if your system is sending back lots of errors, warnings, etc. (You can disable the logging service, but I don’t recommend it, since it can be useful at times for trouble-shooting.)

This os is such a waste, it isn’t even funny. Next computer I go will be mac, all the way.

I have a dual processor and it takes 1.5 minutes to start up my Vista machine. The link above suggests leaving your machine in sleep mode. Assuming you are able to leave it on, it may work faster.