It is a common assumption that if the PC is running/booting up slowly, that it must be something malicious slowing it down. Sometimes that assumption is right on the nail.

As most of my home visits to clients, has proven, it is not always something unwanted causing the problem. Increasing the base level of memory, (normally it’s about 1GB, when they bought it as internet ready, from the shop) has decreased the startup waiting time.

Due to the high RAM overheads needed to run modern software, and the fact that they load thier own modules when the system boots, it’s often that running programs are needing more memory than is initially available. If more is needed than what is there, boot time will be used to swap bits of memory to the HD swap file, before it is ready for the user.

I have 3GB memory in my 2.5 GH home machines, and just under 1GB is used for all the AV, Firewall, Anti malware software, IM, etc etc (my machines are locked down to the max, because I work from home) and then my normal programs on top of that. email, excel workbooks, Dream Weaver and firefox, for my website management.

With all that loading up at startup, it takes a few minutes, (sometimes,) to get to the desktop. Take a look in task manager for the memory usage and swap file size for an indication as to what is going on. (Even with 3GB I have a large swap file on the HD.)

Then, when you’ve looked at the memory, start to worry about viruses etc. or you could end up on a wild goose chase.

Everyone and their dog wants to put themselves in the startup folders/registry and most don’t need to be there..

Dependandant on Workstation:
Alerter/Messenger (set to disabled in services)
Net Logon (do you really need this?)

RPC Locator and Computer Browser may not be needed as well

Paul