It’s been almost three months since the formal release of Windows 7 and basic issues such as slow startup are still surfacing. With the vast multitude of hardware and software being used, these problems may not be attributable to Windows 7 alone. Specific system configurations too could result in poor performance.
Incompatible, outdated or missing device drivers are one of the main reasons for most of the frequently encountered Windows 7 problems, so are Anti-Virus, Anti-Malware and other security programs which affect normal program execution.
A slow startup could be caused by either of the above conditions. In addition, one another reason has been detected. Startup takes a long time due to errors in the shadow copy that happens in the meanwhile. Looking up the event log revealed two problems; the lack of space on the boot drive required for shadow copy, and a missing control file for the copy.
Up-to-date hard disk and chipset drivers and suitable security and firewall settings can improve startup timings. A number of unnecessary programs and services too, including suspected malware, are initiated right at system startup. Using the msconfig.msc identify and disable such software – take care not to meddle with standard Microsoft services and hide them if not too sure – and work with the rest of the services.
As for the shadow copy creation error, increase pagefile size on the boot drive, and remove the pagefile, if present, from any other drive. Ensure that the shadow copy rests on a drive that need not be backed up. Set the disk and chipset drivers to “AHCI” mode, in case it is defaulted as “IDE” in the BiOS.
In case you are looking to explore the startup services further, you create a trace for the startup process to exactly determine the time consuming services, provided you know how to read the trace. Tutorials on Optimization techniques too are available across the web. However, you will have to implement it at your own risk unless you have professional guidance.
I have some other great tips and tricks if you’re having trouble with a slow logon for Windows 7. There are a couple of ways that will help solve this issue and one of them is simply changing your background color. See here for how to do it—http://bit.ly/dfc7op.