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Having to sit through the entire Windows boot process can give even the best of us a headache. Why must we wait – and wait – and WAIT? Matthew has discovered a way to bypass some of the usual rigamarole, and he’s sharing it with all of you in his screencast this week.

All you need to do is click into your Start menu, and type in msconfig. After you hit the Enter key to bring up the proper window, click on the Boot tab. Place a checkmark in the box that says No GUI Boot. This simply disables the Windows splash screen that comes up – saving you a little bit of time and heartache.

This works in Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. From this screen, you can also change several other settings on your computer. You can change the timeout length from when you select your hard disk or operating disk on boot.

On the msconfig startup and services tabs, you can choose to deselect unnecessary items. Do NOT make any changes to these areas if you aren’t sure of what you’re doing, or of what an item is. Always do some research on Google to put a meaning to each item listed before deciding whether or not you need it.

Thanks, Matt, for an excellent screencast full of tips for our community!

How to Speed Up Windows Startup

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I keep trying to tell Pixie that she can’t help someone remotely without installing some type of software that will allow her to do so cross-platform. GoToAssist will do this easily for her. I wanted to demonstrate the software for her, and for all of you. I decided to help Danny Minick with some questions he had about MSConfig. When’s the last time you used MSConfig to toggle any settings? What did you change and why?

MSConfig is a system configuration tool that allows you to troubleshoot and make changes to your system. I wouldn’t recommend going in here unless you know what it is you’re doing. You can change your boot method, and even manually choose what is allowed to start when the computer boots. You have to be very, very careful. Never disable something from there if you don’t know what it is for sure. It’s safe to remove things like QuickTime from auto-startup. However, many of the things listed there are necessary services for Windows.

The way that Windows handles programs when it starts is that it loads everything at the same time. This is where you run into issues, and slower startups. It makes more sense to me to have it open programs one by one by one. But alas – that’s not the way it’s done!

It doesn’t matter how fast your computer is. You can still get bogged down on your system start, simply because you’re trying to let too many things start at the beginning. There wasn’t anything wrong with Danny’s computer – he just wanted my opinion of what he could safely remove using MSConfig.

Using GoToAssist, there is no end to what I could have done to help Danny if he did have a problem. It would have allowed me to remotely control his computer and be able to diagnose and fix whatever was wrong. As a user at home, you can help your friends and family with it. As a business owner, you can save yourself both time and money by doing jobs right from your office, instead of on site!

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What Do You Toggle in MSConfig?

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http://live.pirillo.com/ – One of my favorite chat regulars is SWAT. Not only did he send me a very cool cap to wear, he also sent me an excellent start up optimization tip via EyeJot.

By going to my live.pirillo.com page, you can click on the EyeJot screen at the bottom right and send me a video email! SWAT sent one to me, letting me know that he had noticed that lately my startup on my Vista machine seemed incredibly slow. He’s right, it is. SWAT pointed out that by default, Windows only recognizes one Core, instead of the four that I have. So let’s take a look at his advice.

• Click on Start>Run
• type msconfig and click OK.
• Once that box opens, click on the bootup tab.
• Under the Boot tab, click on Advanced
• Click the box next to the number of Cores, and choose the proper number from the dropdown box.
• Apply and save the changes. Your computer may require a reboot. If it does, go ahead and do so, and notice the difference!

Once I did this, selected four Cores and rebooted, I truly did notice a marked difference in how much faster my machine booted! Thanks, SWAT… for the advice, and the cool cap!

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Speed Up Windows Startup with a Processor Tweak