Windows taking too long to start? How to find what is slowing it

How long is too long?

With Windows on an SSD, most PCs reach a usable desktop within half a minute of the maker’s logo. If yours takes more than a minute before you can open things without waiting, something is slowing it down. With Windows on a mechanical hard drive, one to two minutes is common, and the drive is the reason (step 5).

A start has three parts, and it helps to know which one is slow:

1. The firmware (BIOS or UEFI) checks the hardware before Windows loads: the time the maker’s logo is on screen.
2. Windows loads, up to the sign-in screen and the desktop.
3. Programs that start with Windows load behind the desktop. It is there, but everything you click is slow until they finish.

1. Read Windows’ own timing

Windows times every start and writes it down. To read it:

1. Right-click the Start button and choose Event Viewer.
2. In the left pane, open Applications and Services Logs → Microsoft → Windows → Diagnostics-Performance → Operational. If Windows says you do not have permission, sign in with an administrator account.
3. In the right pane, choose Filter Current Log, type 100 in the box that says All Event IDs, and choose OK.

Each event 100 is one start, and its Boot Duration is how long it took after the firmware had finished, in milliseconds: 45000ms is 45 seconds. Look at several rather than the latest alone. A restart that finished installing an update is always slow, for a reason of its own.

Then change the filter to 101,102,103,109. These events name what made a start slower than usual — 101 a program, 102 a driver, 103 a service, 109 a device — and how much time each added. The same names turning up start after start are the ones to deal with.

2. Check the firmware time

Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) and choose Startup apps. At the top right, Last BIOS time is how long the firmware took. Around ten seconds is common; well over 20 is worth a look:

• Unplug USB drives, card readers and anything else you do not need while the PC starts: the firmware checks each one.
• In the firmware’s boot settings, put Windows Boot Manager first, so it does not look for other drives before it.
• Look for a Fast Boot option in the firmware, and check the maker’s website for a firmware update.

Some PCs leave the field blank: their firmware does not report it.

3. Stop programs you do not need from starting with Windows

The same Startup apps page lists everything that starts when you sign in, with its Startup impact. Right-click anything you do not need the moment Windows starts and choose Disable. Nothing is uninstalled: it still opens when you start it yourself, and you can enable it again on the same page.

The usual candidates are game launchers, chat programs, updaters for printers and other devices, and utilities for keyboard and mouse lighting. Keep your antivirus, and anything that came with a laptop for its touchpad, function keys or power settings.

4. Test with Restart, not Shut down

Windows’ Fast Startup makes Shut down save part of Windows to the drive, so the next start is quicker. Restart always starts Windows from scratch, which makes it the fair test of a change you have made. Fast Startup is fine to leave on; if a PC that has only been shut down for weeks starts behaving oddly, a restart clears it.

5. Move Windows to an SSD

If Windows is on a mechanical hard drive, that is the biggest single cause of a slow start. A start reads thousands of small pieces of files, which a hard drive finds a hundred times slower than an SSD does. To see which you have, open Task Manager, choose Performance, and look at the disk marked (C:): it says SSD or HDD. Moving Windows to an SSD usually brings a start from minutes to well under one, and speeds up everything else as well.

6. Other causes worth checking

• Two antivirus programs. Each scans everything Windows loads, so a start does the work twice. A trial that came with the PC is the usual second one. Windows Security → Virus & threat protection shows which one is active.
• Leftovers from old software. VPN clients, printer and scanner software and hardware utilities install drivers and services that load at every start, long after you stop using them. Uninstall what you no longer use from Settings → Apps → Installed apps.
• Updates. The first start after an update is slow while Windows finishes installing it, which is normal. If every start says it is working on updates, run Windows Update until it says you are up to date.
• A failing drive. A drive that retries its reads slows every start. How to check drive health.

How Bottleneck checks this

Bottleneck reads Windows’ record of the last 30 days of starts — the same events as above — and works out the typical start, leaving out restarts that finished an update. The Components page shows it in every version, free included. When the typical start takes a minute or more, it is reported with the programs, drivers and services Windows says slowed it, how much time each added, and how to stop them.

The same scan counts the programs that start with Windows, and checks whether Windows is on a hard drive and whether two antivirus programs are running at once.