Analysing boot behaviour - something is slowing down Windows loading by at least 30 seconds

Back in the day there was this tool you could use in combination with bootsect (?) to analyse and measure exactly what process and drivers and apps were loading when starting Windows and from that information narrow down what caused slow boots and loading of Windows.

Now I have this issue since a couple of weeks on a fairly fresh installation of W11 (no upgrade from W10, clean install) and I am trying to find out and measure what is causing a 30+ delay from I enter my credentials in the logon screen to desktop, Screen goes black and stays black for about that time.

I have tried several different methods and I do have some services loading, like Adobe and my antivirus that can take some extra seconds, but what I lack is a detailed view of exaclty what is loading in what sequence and its amount of time.

Is there still such a tool around?

This is about my laptop that is a Lenovo P52s with an Nvidia Quadro P500 GFX card, 32GB DDR4 RAM and a Sabrent NVME drive. More details about the laptop: Lenovo 20LB000HMX Performance Results - UserBenchmark

You can use xbootmgr to analyze slow boot time.

I'll give it a shot. Thanks.

(Actually starting to suspect the NVME drive, but it's utility shows no errors)

God almighty, you threw me in to this jungle. Download and install the Windows ADK

I'll see if I can sort it out.

Here's how to fix slow boot startup time on Windows 10 and Windows 11.

That's all pretty much standard measures and already done or discarded them.

The thing here is, as I wrote in my first post, is that the screen goes blank for 30-40 seconds after I log in to Windows and only after that shows the desktop. That is why I need to find out exactly what is loading during that time and why it takes so long.

Easy way might to just cleanup the system and I actually think I am going to do a dism check before messing with ADM.

JFWIW...... Have you run "MSCONFIG " and changed the Boot Delay time from 30 seconds to just 3 seconds? I've done that on every Windows install since....well, a long time ago.

And if there's anything in your "Startup" listing, that you don't absolutely HAVE to have running from boot up, take them out or disable them. Windows installer will put all sorts of things in there that you don't really need, or even want.

When was the last time you cleaned the junk out of your computer? Too much junk can really slow down any PC, even the so-called Gaming PC's. Every PC needs regular maintenance. The newer OS's from MS seem to collect junk faster than the old OS's did.
But even back in Windows XP days, I found the need to write a "WindowsXPCleanup.bat" program, to eliminate the needless junk files.
For my customers who would not to anything to help their own PC, I'd put my little batch file in their Startup Folder, for a little "Maintenance" on every boot up. It only took a couple of seconds to run and really helped the performance of the PC. It ran silently and invisibly, and they never even knew it was there.

I've revised that cleanup batch file, for Windows 11. I call it "Win11Cleanup.bat" and so far this week, in just three days, it's removed over 18,000 junk files. Extend that out to a year and it would be hundreds of thousands of junk files.
Just like my car, my PC needs regular maintenance.

Cheers mate!
TM

TechnoMage2021 said:

JFWIW...... Have you run "MSCONFIG " and changed the Boot Delay time from 30 seconds to just 3 seconds? I've done that on every Windows install since....well, a long time ago.

Click to expand...

yup, don't usually need to touch that though since AFAIK it is only called when you actually do changes in msconfig.

TechnoMage2021 said:

And if there's anything in your "Startup" listing, that you don't absolutely HAVE to have running from boot up, take them out or disable them. Windows installer will put all sorts of things in there that you don't really need, or even want.

Click to expand...

Checked, revised. As mentioned in my first post Adobe has some autostarting crap, and some other apps that tend to leave processes in the background. Disable, rebooted, re enabled, disabled others, same procedure for several suspects, but there were only like 4-5 of them.

TechnoMage2021 said:

When was the last time you cleaned the junk out of your computer? Too much junk can really slow down any PC, even the so-called Gaming PC's. Every PC needs regular maintenance. The newer OS's from MS seem to collect junk faster than the old OS's did.
But even back in Windows XP days, I found the need to write a "WindowsXPCleanup.bat" program, to eliminate the needless junk files.
For my customers who would not to anything to help their own PC, I'd put my little batch file in their Startup Folder, for a little "Maintenance" on every boot up. It only took a couple of seconds to run and really helped the performance of the PC. It ran silently and invisibly, and they never even knew it was there.

Click to expand...

Oh, its pretty clean alright, also as mentioned above, it is a rather new setup of a clean Windows 11 pro. Not the default Lenovo image so only the usual spam which was removed by a certain github bloat cleaning script...

TechnoMage2021 said:

I've revised that cleanup batch file, for Windows 11. I call it "Win11Cleanup.bat" and so far this week, in just three days, it's removed over 18,000 junk files. Extend that out to a year and it would be hundreds of thousands of junk files.
Just like my car, my PC needs regular maintenance.

Cheers mate!
TM

Click to expand...

I will check it. Windows cleanup does actually do a decent job, but limited. Also use Zimmermans HDCleaner occasionally for some extra verifiable options

Started to uninstall a couple of items that are system related like Lenovo Vantage and stumbled over an HP app that connected HP Printers to Google drive. After uninstalling that I think the problem is gone. Probably this one: HP LaserJet Enterprise MFP, HP OfficeJet Enterprise MFP, HP PageWide Enterprise MFP - Scan to Google Drive | HP® Customer Support

Where is that cleanup.bat you refer to?


Ok, tried a few boot scenarios and the problem is indeed gone. Shutdown > Start. Reboot. ShutDown, leave it for a minute > Start.

Seems to have been that HP thing I mentioned.

Thanks for the assist guys.

BTW, Dism came out clean.

Just for fun, I just shut down all my running programs, and then ran my cleanup batch file. I have it programmed to count the files deleted and here's what it reported when it finished.

And....I've got "Prefetch" shut off, or that final number would be a lot higher. So far, my total of deleted junk files, for the past four days, is
38,948 junk files removed. (by actual count)
That kind of junk file build up is something that 99.999% of PC operators never see, or are aware of.
But you'll see them posting on these internet forums, "Why is my PC running so slow?". I wonder!
Actually, as a working PC tech, I don't have to wonder.....I know!

Even back in DOS days, there were programs that would leave their temp files and backup files behind on the HD.
There wasn't a lot of room on a 20MB hard drive for junk, so even back then I began removing it.

Cheers Mates! Happy Computing!
TM

Yeah, many of us were there back in the day. I don't get why the disk cleaner app don't remove junk from prefetch or windows\temp...

In any case, I am aware and I make some efforts towards that. Worst I see nowadays are Setup Scripts in InstallAnywhere or Installshield that don't cleanup their junk when uninstalling.

Coram Daes,
I'm glad you finally got down to the root of your problem. Congratulations!
Most users don't have the expertise to do that.

You asked where my Cleanup.bat program is located, , , well, sir, it's right here on my PC.
If I put it up on the internet, someone would download it to a PC that it was not designed for, and then he'd come back here complaining that it ruined his PC. Been there and done that....NO THANK YOU!

I mentioned DOS programs that would leave .tmp files or .bac files behind.
In those days, it was easy to just add a line to the 'Autoexec.bat' file, to take care of that. But today, garbage collection has gotten way to complicated for one or two lines of code to take care of.

I found one little trick, considering cleaning out the Prefetch Folder.... One must be the Owner of the Folder before it can be cleaned out.
So I added this to my batch file, to give me ownership of that folder. Or anyone, anywhere in the world, running that command. It was the only folder where I had to do that.

TAKEOWN /F "C:\Windows\Prefetch"
del /F /S /Q "C:\Windows\Prefetch\*.*"


Y'all take care now, Y'hear?

TM
PS: I am not a Batch File Master. I just fumble around and sometimes get lucky. And, sometimes get help from a friend.

Coram Daes said:

Back in the day there was this tool you could use in combination with bootsect (?) to analyse and measure exactly what process and drivers and apps were loading when starting Windows and from that information narrow down what caused slow boots and loading of Windows.

Click to expand...

do you mean this. I can vaguely remember the name from a few years ago.

OK, @TechnoMage2021 , I get that. I was better at DOS back in W95, still know a bit, but more then. Thankyou for your kind words.


@SIW2 That may very well have been it. I recall someone started a bit of a contest in getting boot times as low as possible and such a tool was used to help. Might have been on the https://www.sevenforums.com or the Windows 8 Help Forums but I really don't remember.

I am still a member on both, as many of us I guess, thanks to Brink...

Sometimes, I think I've forgotten more than I ever knew, if I ever knew anything at all.
Back in DOS 2.0 where I got started, to DOS 6.22, the last that I used, I could sit down at a PC and whip up an Ansi Color Menu in just a few minutes and never have to look at a Cheat Sheet. But today? Forgetaboutit!!! I'm doing good to just throw together a simple Batch File.
Old German once said, "ve gets too soon oldt, und too late schmart"
I'm constantly looking back at things I did years ago to answer the question, "How you do that?"

Writing my revised Cleanup.bat Batch File has really caused me to dig deep into the old mem-files and even cry out for help. @Brink

Y'all have a great day now, Y'hear?
TM