Startup apps take ages to load on m.2 ssd

Hey all. Recently iv noticed my startup apps take quite a long time to load and i cant figure out why

I did all the usual health checks (SSD health checks, sfc scan now, all windows updates) but as i was having other windows issues i decided to do a full reformat and reinstall windows 11 fresh

My boot drive is a Crucial P5 Plus 1TB m.2 pci gen4 (made sure it has the latest firmware, crystaldiskmark shows 6736 MB read and 4813 MB write)

Ive always had fast startup off as its caused nvidia driver issues for me in the past

I currently barely have any apps installed yet, and timed how long it took. From when i see my desktop screen it took 1 minute 50 seconds before anything started to load, first was steam (just the login page as i havent even logged in yet, so it didnt need to load the steam store or anything) quickly followed by firefox and spotify.... that was it...

Why is it taking so long now? even on a fresh install with barely anything running yet?

Under task manager in startup apps, do you see anything there where the startup impact is very high/heavy?

If so disable it and see if anything improves.

You can also look at the following:

1. Open Event Viewer and navigate to Windows Logs > System.
   • Filter for Event IDs on the right hand side:
     • 6005: System startup.
2. Performance Monitor:
   Run perfmon /report in a command window to generate a detailed system performance report, including startup processes.

andrew129260 said:

Under task manager in startup apps, do you see anything there where the startup impact is very high/heavy?

Click to expand...

Or already running in the background.

andrew129260 said:

Under task manager in startup apps, do you see anything there where the startup impact is very high/heavy?

If so disable it and see if anything improves.

You can also look at the following:

1. Open Event Viewer and navigate to Windows Logs > System.
   • Filter for Event IDs on the right hand side:
     • 6005: System startup.
2. Performance Monitor:
   Run perfmon /report in a command window to generate a detailed system performance report, including startup processes.

Click to expand...

Theres only one entry for 6005 that just says "The event log service was started" . steam firefox and spotify all say "not measured" , the others are all low or none except msedge that says high

I wasnt sure if you wanted me to upload the perfmon here or check it myself, so i though id do both just incase lol, no need to look if not, im having a look through now (barely know what im looking at though lol)

antspants said:

Or already running in the background.

Click to expand...

Barely anythings running, cpu usage is low at 4-6%, 4GB ram, barely any hard drive usage etc

You have some very interesting results here give me some time to look it over.

So a few things (I haven't looked through all of it yet):

1. Your bios is out of date
2. You have your intel integrated graphics disabled, which is causing an intel service to fail to start and it keeps restarting itself over and over again

I would try:

1. Go into device manager and enable the intel integrated graphics. You have a dedicated gpu so as long as your plugged into that you shouldn't have any issues once the drivers are up to date.
2. Get the latest bios and cpu chipset driver here for your motherboard. Alternatively use the msi center app to get all your drivers and stuff updated.

I think that intel service might be the reason.

andrew129260 said:

So a few things (I haven't looked through all of it yet):

1. Your bios is out of date
2. You have your intel integrated graphics disabled, which is causing an intel service to fail to start and it keeps restarting itself over and over again

I would try:

1. Go into device manager and enable the intel integrated graphics. You have a dedicated gpu so as long as your plugged into that you shouldn't have any issues once the drivers are up to date.
2. Get the latest bios and cpu chipset driver here for your motherboard. Alternatively use the msi center app to get all your drivers and stuff updated.

I think that intel service might be the reason.

Click to expand...

Hey again Andrew, thanks for your reply

1. Thats odd as i updated the bios yesterday, it shows the latest version in the bios and matches on msi's website
2. I enabled the intergrated graphics and installed the intel drivers but sadly theres no difference

I checked on msi center app and only had the intel gna drivers that needed updating, i did those just incase but no change, i also reinstalled the chipset drivers but same thing

Well that sucks.

See if safe mode takes a long time to load as well.


You can also try msconfig selective startup and diagnostic startup to try to hunt down the root cause.

Alternatively, you can wipe windows again, and restart after each thing added to see what is causing the slowdown.

But thats a pain. You can also ignore it and use hibernate like I do, restarting just once a week or so. Mine doesnt take that long, but I just like the quickness of hibernate and having everything open the way I had it.

Also, is the longest time booting windows or waiting after the logon screen?

andrew129260 said:

Well that sucks.

See if safe mode takes a long time to load as well.

Boot to Safe Mode in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to boot Windows 11 into normal mode, Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, or Safe Mode with Command Prompt. Safe mode starts Windows in a basic state, using a limited set of files and drivers. If a problem doesn't happen in safe mode, this means that default...

www.elevenforum.com

You can also try msconfig selective startup and diagnostic startup to try to hunt down the root cause.

Alternatively, you can wipe windows again, and restart after each thing added to see what is causing the slowdown.

But thats a pain. You can also ignore it and use hibernate like I do, restarting just once a week or so. Mine doesnt take that long, but I just like the quickness of hibernate and having everything open the way I had it.

Also, is the longest time booting windows or waiting after the logon screen?

Click to expand...

Ok so first i tried safe mode, then remembered it doesnt start up any apps so that was silly of me lol

I then tried the diagnostic startup you suggested, and steam/firefox/spotify loaded in 9 seconds. I tried going through the services tab but it turns out none of them are the cause. When in normal startup but with all my services disabled (after ticking "hide all microsoft services" and then disable all) i still had the issue

So it must be a microsoft one

Its fast to get to the desktop, but thats when it takes 2 minutes before loading startup apps

It's certainly not a universal issue with Windows 11. I have four different Win11 Pro machines, nothing like that happens on any of them.

Perform a clean boot to eliminate software conflict causing the issue. If it doesn't happen in a clean boot, you have some software conflicting with Windows. You have to find it by process of elimination. Brink's procedure will help you weed out which one. Perform a Clean Boot in Windows 11 to Troubleshoot Software Conflicts Tutorial

gunrunnerjohn said:

It's certainly not a universal issue with Windows 11. I have four different Win11 Pro machines, nothing like that happens on any of them.

Click to expand...

im at a loss tbh, its driving me mad though as i know its not normal and wonder if it could cause issues elsewhere

glasskuter said:

Perform a clean boot to eliminate software conflict causing the issue. If it doesn't happen in a clean boot, you have some software conflicting with Windows. You have to find it by process of elimination. Brink's procedure will help you weed out which one. Perform a Clean Boot in Windows 11 to Troubleshoot Software Conflicts Tutorial

Click to expand...

It does load a bit quicker when doing a clean boot, but its still longer than id assume it would be, still took 1 min 30 seconds for spotify to load (when i enabled an app or two for testing)

Here's my little check list of things to try for this problem (in no particular order):

Things to try:

1. Perform a clean boot to eliminate software conflict causing the issue. If it doesn't happen in a clean boot, you have some software conflicting with Windows. Brink's procedure will help you weed out which one. Perform a Clean Boot in Windows 11 to Troubleshoot Software Conflicts Tutorial

2.Make sure you have no corrupt system files that is causing this problem. Open a command prompt as administrator and type
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
Restart computer
Open another cmd prompt as admin and type sfc /scannow
Pay attention to the scan results to see if SFC found anything it could not repair.

3. disable fast startup Turn On or Off Fast Startup in Windows 11

4. After windows fully loads, right click on start button and select task manager. Look at the column headers. Are any resources running at 100%? If so, click on that header to sort the processes to show those hogging the most resources to be at the top.

5. update your bios to latest and update graphics driver from the manufacturer,

6. Run disk cleanup. In search box search for "disk", In search results RIGHT click on Disk Cleanup & select 'run as administrator'
Along with what will already be checked, also put a check by Previous Windows Installations and Temporary Files

7. You have HDDs, Defrag them. search 'defrag'. In search results select "Defragment and Optimize" drives. The app will tell you which drives are fragmented and need to be optimized

8. Check for Malware using Malwarebytes Free. Scroll all the way down in this link and select Malwarebytes Free. Do a full scan. Quarantine (or remove) anything that Malwarebytes detects. Restart the computer
Download Free Windows 10 Antivirus | Malwarebytes

9. Test to see if issues remain while in safe mode? Boot to Safe Mode in Windows 11 Tutorial

10. Repair Install Windows 11 Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade Tutorial

glasskuter said:

Here's my little check list of things to try for this problem (in no particular order):

Things to try:

1. Perform a clean boot to eliminate software conflict causing the issue. If it doesn't happen in a clean boot, you have some software conflicting with Windows. Brink's procedure will help you weed out which one. Perform a Clean Boot in Windows 11 to Troubleshoot Software Conflicts Tutorial

2.Make sure you have no corrupt system files that is causing this problem. Open a command prompt as administrator and type
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
Restart computer
Open another cmd prompt as admin and type sfc /scannow
Pay attention to the scan results to see if SFC found anything it could not repair.

3. disable fast startup Turn On or Off Fast Startup in Windows 11

4. After windows fully loads, right click on start button and select task manager. Look at the column headers. Are any resources running at 100%? If so, click on that header to sort the processes to show those hogging the most resources to be at the top.

5. update your bios to latest and update graphics driver from the manufacturer,

6. Run disk cleanup. In search box search for "disk", In search results RIGHT click on Disk Cleanup & select 'run as administrator'
Along with what will already be checked, also put a check by Previous Windows Installations and Temporary Files

7. You have HDDs, Defrag them. search 'defrag'. In search results select "Defragment and Optimize" drives. The app will tell you which drives are fragmented and need to be optimized

8. Check for Malware using Malwarebytes Free. Scroll all the way down in this link and select Malwarebytes Free. Do a full scan. Quarantine (or remove) anything that Malwarebytes detects. Restart the computer
Download Free Windows 10 Antivirus | Malwarebytes

9. Test to see if issues remain while in safe mode? Boot to Safe Mode in Windows 11 Tutorial

10. Repair Install Windows 11 Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade Tutorial

Click to expand...

ive done all these but no luck . The odd thing is, its different everytime now, sometimes they take ages to loads and sometimes not, they load faster if i trigger something like open an app. Guess il just have to give up

Thank you though @andrew129260 @antspants @gunrunnerjohn and @glasskuter i really appreciate all your time, the forums lucky to have helpful people like you guys :)

Your starting position:

1. "Barely anythings running, cpu usage is low at 4-6%"

That is not low, far from it. far too high, which basically means far too much background stuff is running.

On mine From 2021(Windows ME) to 2025(Windows 11) on different PCs and Laptops CPU usage just running Windows has been consistently at 0%-1% level.

2. You have to do something objectively, not waste time on pointless analysis e.g. using the Event Viewer.

To that end from what you say is installed:

a) Steam - that needs careful configuration as it has the potential for tons of stuff to run in the background and Startup.

b) Web Browsers - All of them including Edge, Direfox. no idea about Spotify, but all have the potential to run tons of background/Startup stuff/Startup.

c) Intel iGPU make sure drivers and Graphics Command Center is installed and most importantly configured for minimum background/Startup stuff. There is, so has to be done.
Does not matter that you do not want/use these or associated Apps.

Helmut said:

Your starting position:

1. "Barely anythings running, cpu usage is low at 4-6%"

That is not low, far from it. far too high, which basically means far too much background stuff is running.

On mine From 2021(Windows ME) to 2025(Windows 11) on different PCs and Laptops CPU usage just running Windows has been consistently at 0%-1% level.

2. You have to do something objectively, not waste time on pointless analysis e.g. using the Event Viewer.

To that end from what you say is installed:

a) Steam - that needs careful configuration as it has the potential for tons of stuff to run in the background and Startup.

b) Web Browsers - All of them including Edge, Direfox. no idea about Spotify, but all have the potential to run tons of background/Startup stuff/Startup.

c) Intel iGPU make sure drivers and Graphics Command Center is installed and most importantly configured for minimum background/Startup stuff. There is, so has to be done.
Does not matter that you do not want/use these or associated Apps.

Click to expand...

1. This was during windows startup, which im assuming CPU usage will be higher during the booting/loading phase right? thats why i said it was low

2. Thats why im asking here, because i tried everything and didnt know what else to do. Why is the event viewer pointless analysis? isnt that what its there for? as recommended by @andrew129260


Steam needs careful config? i havent even logged in yet, this is a completely fresh install with only a few installed programs.

as recommended above i fully updated iGPU etc

andrew129260 said:

Alternatively, you can wipe windows again, and restart after each thing added to see what is causing the slowdown.

But that's a pain. You can also ignore it and use hibernate like I do, restarting just once a week or so. Mine doesnt take that long, but I just like the quickness of hibernate and having everything open the way I had it.

Click to expand...

That's my last suggestion I can think of to resolve it. Especially as a clean install of windows was performed and it is still doing it.

Couldn't hurt to look at event viewer again and look at what its doing after boot. See if it mentions a service or hardware failing to initialize or something.

You also have razor peripherals so maybe they need an update or something. They are notorious for having issues. If you have a different keyboard and mouse, give that a try.

Mike321 said:

1. This was during windows startup, which im assuming CPU usage will be higher during the booting/loading phase right? thats why i said it was low

2. Thats why im asking here, because i tried everything and didnt know what else to do. Why is the event viewer pointless analysis? isnt that what its there for?

Click to expand...

Perfectly normal usage to me while the pc is booting. Once it settles and everything is loaded, then it should be at below 4%. Once signing into steam and all that & wallpaper engine etc and other common gaming apps really makes it hard to say. Depends what you have installed. I don't personally think that's high of a usage.

And yes, not sure what they are implying with event viewer being useless, it's literally one of the most important troubleshooting steps that most people ignore for some reason. (Or just don't know about, which is fine.)

And they also ignored that you wiped and reinstalled windows and barely installed anything and it's still slow. So something else is going on.

I am also not sure why they state steam needs careful setup as I have about a zillion things + steam in my startup and my computer takes less than 20 seconds from power on to desktop from shut down.

Mike321 said:

Ok so first i tried safe mode, then remembered it doesnt start up any apps so that was silly of me lol

I then tried the diagnostic startup you suggested, and steam/firefox/spotify loaded in 9 seconds. I tried going through the services tab but it turns out none of them are the cause. When in normal startup but with all my services disabled (after ticking "hide all microsoft services" and then disable all) i still had the issue

So it must be a microsoft one

Its fast to get to the desktop, but thats when it takes 2 minutes before loading startup apps

Click to expand...

That is very interesting. First I have seen or heard of that. It's always a third party service......

Just a random thought, have you updated your 5070 nvidia drivers recently?

Does the delay still happen when you log in to Windows with a local account? Have you disabled Fast Boot in BIOS (not to be confused with Fast Startup in Windows) ?

Hi.

Some people have had good luck starting Windows in reasonable time with this key addition in registry.

Just copy the contents below in between quote and unquote (exclude quote and unquote) and save the file with .reg file extension:

QUOTE

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Serialize]
"StartupDelayInMSec"=dword:00000000
"WaitForIdleState"=dword:00000000

UNQUOTE

Please refer to this thread in Microsoft forum: Startup apps artificially delayed on Windows 11? - Microsoft Q&A

Hope this helps.