How To Decrease Boot time of Windows XP

This is a guest post by Sumesh who is a tech-inclined student, and blogs about blogging, WordPress and software at TechZilo (RSS feed), and about all things Apple (the company) at Apple Lens (RSS feed).

Windows XP is still one of the most popular OS, despite the launch of Vista and Mac OS X. The reasons are simple – the next gen OS are way too advanced for the average user. Windows XP is pretty stable now, a break from the frequent patches every week, or the service-packs.

Here’s a fact that would probably surprise you – Windows XP is faster than Vista in booting time. XP is notorious for not booting in lesser than 25 seconds, no matter what the hardware. I tested this theory on a computer with Core2Duo E6600, 2GB RAM and 320GB SATA HDD, but still do not get any thing less than 26 seconds.

As a Windows XP user, you’d be facing the same dilemma. In fact, you’re more likely to have ~30 second times. How can you decrease it? Here is a simple fix.

Go to Start>Run, and type “msconfig“(without quotes). In the dialog that opens, click the BOOT.INI tab, and tick(check) the NOGUIBOOT option, under Boot Options. That was easy, wasn’t it?

What this fix does is, to disable the graphics during booting. That way, you can optimize your system and shave off 2-3 seconds off the boot time. You might laugh at the 2 seconds, but optimization is a tricky business, and every bit counts. You can also see my 4 tips for improved PC performance.