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

Coram Daes · Jan 11, 2023

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

FreeBooter · Jan 11, 2023

You can use xbootmgr to analyze slow boot time.

How to Time Boot & perform a Boot Trace in Windows 10

Use the xbootmgr to time boot and perform a boot trace in Windows. You can use to trace hibernate, standby, shutdown and more.

www.thewindowsclub.com

Coram Daes · Jan 11, 2023

I'll give it a shot. Thanks.

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

Coram Daes · Jan 11, 2023

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

I'll see if I can sort it out.

FreeBooter · Jan 11, 2023

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

Coram Daes · Jan 11, 2023

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.

TM21 · Jan 11, 2023

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

Coram Daes · Jan 11, 2023

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

TM21 · Jan 11, 2023

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

Coram Daes · Jan 11, 2023

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.

TM21 · Jan 11, 2023

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.

SIW2 · Jan 11, 2023

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.

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

Download BootRacer 9.55.2026.519 - Free Utility for Monitoring Windows Boot Time and Detecting Slow Startup Programs!

BootRacer Monitors Boot Time and Detects Slow Startup Programs!

greatis.com

Coram Daes · Jan 12, 2023

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...

TM21 · Jan 12, 2023

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

blued · May 5, 2024

Tried the bootracer program mentioned above. Only gives the overall boot time, not a breakdown of apps by time that are slowing the boot process down. Maybe in the premium version, but found a free app that shows this vital info: Startup Timer

SIW2 · May 5, 2024

you could also try nir sofers bootperformanceview. double click on an entry to get a pop up with the breakdown. On my system having the mechanical disk turned on adds considerable time. It is usually off and only switched on as and when needed.

TM21 · May 5, 2024

It's amazing, or should I say, "disheartening" how much pure JUNK is put into the Startup at Boot section of the Task Manager, when Windows installs.
A person buying a new PC today, and taking it home, and going through the standard Setup, has no clue how much pure Crap is being installed, and set to run in the background. They Never look in the Task Manager, or are even aware of it.
Some would say that "Ignorance is Bliss", but not when it comes to Computers.
And then, often in just a few months, the .tmp files, temporary internet files and .old files (Edge), and the .log files, begin to really stack up, and slow down Windows.
And then, hopefully, that person will find a forum somewhere, where they can cry out for help. "My PC is running SO Slow"!
And they will get a litany of do this and do that and post this and post that. And still they have thousands or Hundreds of Thousands of junk files on their HD or SSD.

As a working PC tech, I used to get calls to go work on PC's that had slowed to a crawl. Sometimes, it would take Hours, to just get rid of all the junk on a PC, before I could even get down to tweaking and tuning it for Max Performance.
I remember one PC, that had over 400,000 Tracking Cookies on it. "Super Anti Spyware" (FREE) took care of that. But first I had to install SAS, before I could run it. And then sit there, whilst SAS ran its scan, and again whilst it deleted those Tracking Cookies, and maybe even a Trojan or two.
On a few occasions, I just took the PC home with me, because I saw that the cleanup was going to take HOURS! And many times my customer would fix me a Meal, while I was there. It wasn't a bad life, but now I'm retired and glad of it. I still have ten PC's of my own to maintain.

Cheers Mates!
TM

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

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