Clock Your PC’s Boot Time
Posted on June 16, 2010 at 5:29 am
Have you ever wondered how long, precisely, it takes your computer to boot? Although it feels like an eternity, it may not be as long as you think. Before scouring the internet for speed solutions, clock the precise time it takes your computer to boot, from the moment the computer receives power until all startup programs are fully loaded, with PC Boot Timer.
The program is very small and takes only a few seconds to download from CNET. Once downloaded, run the program. You will be prompted to restart your computer, which is absolutely necessary to clock your boot time.
Your computer will then restart in the normal way it always restarts, but with Boot Timer logging every second. You may receive a security alert when Windows starts asking if you want to allow the Windows Boot Time Utility to run. If you receive this warning, click Yes.
A window will appear telling you not to use your keyboard or mouse. This is only because clicking extra icons before your computer is fully loaded will slow the boot time, skewing the results. If clicking or typing something is essential to booting the computer, by al means, do it.
When the computer is fully loaded, Boot Timer will display a message stating how long the computer took to reach this status.
In our first test with a Windows 7: 32 Bit system took roughly 3 minutes—which, in reality, is not a great amount of time. We then tried the Boot Timer on an 8-year old XP Machine that has seen better days.
This test showed a boot time of almost 11 minutes. Of course, the first line of defense in speeding up a sluggish boot time is to run MSCONFIG and deselect any non-essential programs in the startup list. With an 8-year old processor, 40 gig hard drive, and less than 1 GB RAM, even the trimmest startup configuration will have lag.
We do have an issue with Boot Timer: it leads us back to the publisher’s Web site when the final OK button is clicked. We are prompted to leave feedback about the program and other software is suggested. For such a small program, this seems like a hassle.
» Filed Under Computer Tips
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I consider my computer booted when the OS, drivers, and all the applications are loaded and the computer is ready to go to work. That takes slightly under 3 minutes on my computer running Windows 7 with the programs I have installed that load at startup. I consider that reasonable time. I hear of users, usually the more geeky ones, who claim 18 seconds, and 35 seconds, etc. boot time. When questioned about what they define as boot time, they always have some point when a certain screen appears or some such that they call boot time; but never from pressing the “start” button until the computer is ready to go to work. I would like to see boot a time comparison among a large group of users all using a program such as this so they would all be “timing with the same time clock”. I would predict that these 18 second boot times would be TOTALLY invalidated and would actually be in the 2 to 3 minute range. At the very least, it would make time comparisons much more valid if there were one single definition of what defines ‘boot time’.
I totally agree. Back in the DOS days, we were “booted” when the first blinking cursor appeared, awaiting our input. Now, it is not so clear.
In Win 7, a 2-3 minute boot time is acceptable. If waiting for 10 minutes, there are probably tweaks needed.