In the past I have not had an issue with the time which Windows XP took to start up. However, recently the computer has been taking about 7 to 8 minutes to startup before I can use any applications. A dialog box for connecting to the internet is also displayed upon start-up, so it would also be useful if this could be disabled.

Generally slow Windows startup times can be attributed to a program or series of programs, loading on Windows startup and slowing down the computer. Quite a few of these background programs and processes (which are hidden programs) are often unnecessary, as you may not be using the functionality which they provide and can be disabled from loading on startup. Furthermore, the internet connection window that appears on startup is indicating that some background program or process is requesting internet access (for one reason or another). The most likely reason is that one of the background programs or processes that have loaded is an updating utility for an application and needs to poll an update server on the internet to determine whether any updates are available. As I assume that your computer is not connected to a home network with a permanent internet connection, you need to manually initiate an internet connection when required. Therefore, because you don’t have an active internet connection when the computer initially starts, yet something on the computer requires an internet connection, the window is appearing, providing you with the option to connect to the internet. That said, it is equally possible that some spyware or adware has become installed on your computer and is requesting internet access which could also account for the slowness of your computer. Granted, this is the more pessimistic assessment of the root cause for this problem, but something nevertheless needs to be considered.

We will first deal with the possibility that a large number of programs and/or processes are loading on Windows startup, causing the computer to run slowly and boot slowly. To test whether this is the cause we will disable all programs and processes from loading on startup. Go to the “Start” menu > “Run” and type “msconfig” (without the quotes)” then click OK. This will open the System Configuration Utility which allows you (amongst other things) to enable and disable items from loading on Windows startup. Click the “Startup” tab. This lists all the programs and processes which load on Windows startup. We are going to disable all of these items so that they don’t load on startup, but before doing so we need to record which items are currently enabled and disabled so that we can restore the original configuration if needed later. Ticked items indicate that the item is enabled to load on startup, whereas unticked items indicate that the item is disabled and not loading on startup. Note down all the items which are currently ticked (alternatively, you may find it easier to note down the inverse, items which are not ticked, if there are currently more items enabled than disabled. Once this has been done, click the “Disable all” button. This will disable all of those items from loading on startup. Click OK to save and close the settings. Restart the computer. As you have disabled all those items from loading on startup none of them will load when Windows starts, so you should check whether the Windows startup is any quicker now that those items have been disabled. As an aside, be aware that a window may appear once the computer reboots warning that the computer is running in Selective Startup mode. This simply means that you have manually (selectively) changed which items load on startup. You can safely ignore and dismiss this message.

If you find that Windows now loads relatively quickly, as those background items have been disabled from loading on startup, there are two further avenues that we can explore. The first is that one or two of those items which were previously loading on startup were the direct cause of the slowness. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that we can re-enable all of the other background programs and processes except the problematic items which are causing the slowness. However, the challenge is determining which of the items is causing the slowness. This will simply be a trial and error process. Go back into the System Configuration Utility and re-enable one of the items which you previously disabled, click OK to save the changes and then restart the computer. Once the computer has restarted, check whether it is slow or still running at full speed. Should the computer still be running at full speed, repeat the procedure again to re-enable another item and then re-check once the computer has restarted. Continue this process until the computer has a substantial decline in performance, at which time you have determined an item which is causing the problem. You should leave that item disabled and then continue with the procedure, as it is always possible that another item could also be causing the slowness (so you don’t want to assume that because you have found one problematic item that you can immediately re-enable all of the remaining items without problems). Following this procedure should also allow you to determine which item is causing the internet connection window to appear on startup, so that you can keep that item disabled (if it is not necessary) so that you are not prompted to connect to the internet every time you start Windows.

Once you have finished the procedure, you should have at least one program or process which is causing the problem. Obviously without knowing the exact item causing the problem I cannot offer specific advice on how to remedy the issue. However, as a first step you should determine the purpose of that particular program or process. I suggest that you search for the name of the item (as displayed in the System Configuration Utility > Startup tab) in Google (or your favourite search engine) as that should yield results on its purpose. Once this information has been gathered, you should be able to make an informed decision as to whether that program or process is necessary (and whether you can simply leave it disabled with no ill-effects) and also it will provide you with information allowing you to perhaps remedy the issue, by researching whether other users have also experienced the same problem or perhaps whether an update is available which addresses the issue.

As mentioned earlier, there is also a second avenue which we can explore. It is possible that the slowness of Windows startup cannot be attributed to a specific program or process (or group of programs and processes) but instead is just the net effect of having a large accumulated number of items loading on startup. You will find this to be the case because when enabling each of the items one at a time there is no significant performance hit when enabling these individual items, but instead your computer gets gradually and gradually slower as more items are enabled. Should this be the case then you have no real choice except to try to economise the number of items which are loading on Windows startup. Using the list of items which are enabled on startup I suggest that you determine the purpose of each item and whether it is necessary. There are likely to be many items relating to programs which you may not regularly use or perhaps even items which simply update programs installed on your computer. Once you have determined which items you need to leave enabled and which can be disabled return to the System Configuration Utility and make the necessary changes so that you only enable the items which are required. This will result in fewer items loading upon Windows startup, speeding up the startup process.

We will now move onto the more sinister possibility, that the computer has become infected with a virus, spyware, adware or some other kind of nasty malware. If you find that disabling all the startup items does not resolve the slowness, or there are some background items with very strange names (almost random characters), then this is an indication of a possible infection. In the first instance, you should complete a full system scan with your antivirus scanner (make sure that you also have all the latest updates for your antivirus scanner). If you do not currently have an antivirus scanner installed then I recommend that you download the 30-day trial of NOD32 antivirus (www.nod32.com.au). This is an excellent antivirus scanner which has a very small system footprint, so it shouldn’t stall your computer and occupy vast amounts of system resources. If you find that this meets your needs, then you may also consider purchasing the full version once your 3-day trial has expired. Once the virus scan has been completed and removed any identified threats, you should do an anti-malware scan on the computer. You should download and install the following three utilities on your computer: Ad-Aware Free (www.lavasoft.com), Spybot Search & Destroy (www.safer-networking.org), and Windows Defender (www.microsoft.com/download). You should scan your computer with each utility individually and remove and correct any threats issues which are identified. I suggest that once you have completed a scan using one utility you restart the computer and then do another scan with that utility, just to make sure that everything has been properly removed.

However, should you find that after completing the scan the computer is still starting and running slowly, it may be time to consider a clean reinstallation of Windows XP. I realise that this is a cumbersome process, as you need to backup all data and then reinstall Windows from scratch, but over time the performance of computers decreases because there is often a build-up of old data and programs. This is also known as “bit rot” (see the Wikipedia article for a good explanation of this term: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit_rot). Therefore, it may be worthwhile considering a clean reinstallation. However, if you wish to journey down this track then be aware that it is a destructive process – you will lose all data on your computer when doing a clean reinstallation of Windows. Therefore, it is imperative that you backup all important data on your computer that you wish to keep (for example, documents and email) so that they can be restored to your computer once the reinstallation has completed. If you are unsure about this process then it may be worthwhile taking your computer to a professional to have this process completed.