Windows® 7 Tweaks: A Comprehensive Guide on Customizing, Increasing Performance, and Securing Microsoft® Windows 7

Chapter 12. Speeding Up the System Boot

With the exception of Windows Vista, the boot speed has improved with every version of Windows. Developing Windows 7, Microsoft set a goal of reducing the boot time to 15 seconds. I would say that they got very close. If you have the latest hardware and a high speed solid state disk you can reduce the time to less than 15 seconds, but for the majority of users there is room for improvement.

This chapter shows you some tips and tweaks you can use to improve the boot performance further. It also shows you how to focus on reducing the workload put on your hardware and ways to improve the reading of data from your storage device.

Working with the BIOS

Every personal computer has a system BIOS (basic input/output system), which is what takes control of your computer the moment that you turn it on. The screen that you first see when you turn on your computer is called the power on self-test screen, better known as the POST screen. If you purchased your computer from one of the major computer manufacturers, this screen is often hidden by the manufacturer's logo. To get rid of this logo from the screen, just press the Esc button on your keyboard; you'll then see what is going on in the background. At this stage in the system boot, the BIOS is probing the hardware to test the system memory and other device connections. After the POST has completed, the BIOS proceeds to look for a device to boot from. When it finds your hard drive, it begins to load Windows. ...