Nothing is more annoying than waiting for your computer to boot up slowly when you need your machine in the need of the hour. In this article, we have listed the top 6 ways to solve the slow booting issues in Windows 11 or 10. If you are experiencing even the slightest slowness in the booting time, you can quickly enact these fixes to decrease the effective booting time.
Fix 1 – Disable Fast Startup
The fast startup option may sound to help the computer to startup fast, but in some peculiar cases, it does the opposite.
1. At first, just press the Windows key+R keys together.
2. Now, write “powercfg.cpl” and then click on “OK“.
Power Options window will be opened.
3. On the left pane, tap on “Choose what power buttons do“.
4. You will notice that all the settings are greyed out.
5. To change the settings, you have to click on “Change settings that are currently unavailable“.
5. Next, under ‘Shutdown settings’, just uncheck the “Turn on fast startup (recommended)” option.
6. Then, tap on “Save changes” to save the power settings.
Once you have switched off the fast startup, shut down your computer. Once you have done it, start it up again.
Fix 2 – Remove some startup items
If many applications (like – Skype, OneDrive, antivirus software, etc.) start up automatically at the startup of the system, it will slow down the booting process significantly.
1. At first, press Windows key+X keys together.
2. Then, tap on the “Task Manager” to access it.
3. When the Task Manager opens up, go to the “Startup” tab.
4. Here, right-click on the items you don’t want to auto start automatically, and click on “Disable” to disable the autostart of the particular items.
5. Repeat these steps for all the apps you don’t want to start up automatically.
Once you are done, close the Task Manager and restart the machine to check it should improve the booting time significantly.
Fix 3 – Disable the Linux Subsystem
You can easily disable the Linux Subsystem which offers a Linux environment for Windows users, but it may slow boot the system.
1. At first, press the Windows key+R keys together.
2. Then, type this command and click on “OK“.
optionalfeatures
This will open up the Windows Features.
3. Next, scroll down through the optional features and uncheck the “Windows Subsystem for Linux“.
4. Finally, click on “OK“.
Windows will now disable this feature. But, you have to restart your computer to effectively disable this optional feature.
5. Click on “Restart your computer“.
This will restart your computer and disable the feature. Check the booting time the next time you start up your system.
Fix 4 – Adjust the paging file size
The paging file size or the virtual ram can make your computer faster. But, in some cases, it may slow boot the system.
1. At first, open the Run window.
2. Now, write “sysdm.cpl” and then hit Enter.
3. Once the System Properties window opens up, go to the “Advanced” tab.
4. Under the ‘Performance‘ tab, tap on the “Settings“.
5. Now, under the ‘Virtual memory’ section, click on “Change” to change paged file size change.
8. Now, you will see two distinct options of paging file size. Like – ‘Recommended‘ and ‘Currently allocated‘. If you see ‘Currently allocated‘ size > ‘Recommened‘ size, you have to take control of the paging size.
9. Just, uncheck the option “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives” so you can adjust it manually.
10. Then, choose the ‘C:‘ drive from the list.
11. Next, click on “Custom size:” to select it.
12. Set the values of size using these formulae ~
Initial size (MB)= Recommonded Size Maximum Size (MB)= 3*(1024* Amount of Physical RAM)
[Example – Initial Size of the RAM should be equivalent to the same amount of ‘Recommended:’ size. In our case, it will be –
Initial size (MB) = 2938
In our case, this system has 16 GB of RAM or 16*1024=16384 MB. So, the ‘Maximum Size(MB)’ will be –
Maximum Size (MB) = 3*(1024*16) = 3* 16384 = 49152
13. Once you are done, Don’t forget to click on “OK” to save the settings.
This way, you can uplift the slow booting process by adjusting the paged file settings.
Fix 5 – Run SFC scan
You can run the SFC scans to check if there are any system files issues.
1. At first, press the Windows key+R keys together.
2. In the Run window, type “cmd” and then hit Ctrl+Shift+Enter keys together.
2. Simply, paste this code in the terminal and hit Enter to run the scan.
sfc /scannow
Wait for a while to finish the process.
3. For the second scan, execute this command in the terminal.
DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth
This scan will also take some more time.
Once you are finished, close the Command Prompt window.
Fix 6 – Reset the computer
The best way to get a fresh PC experience is to refresh the computer.
1. At first, press the Windows key+I keys together.
2. Then, tap on “System” on the left-hand.
3. Next, click on “Recovery” in the right-hand pane.
4. Then, click on “Reset PC“.
5. There will be two distinct options. We recommend you choose the “Keep my files” option. This way, you won’t lose any personal data.
Follow the on-screen process further to complete the reset process.
The booting time will be much faster than before once your device is reset.
Bonus Tips –
1. The best way to fix a slow booting issue on your system is the use of SSDs. Just buy a 128 GB (at least) SSD, plug it in and move port your Windows OS from your HDD to SDD. This will decrease the booting time significantly.
2. Do not install any external app in the same drive where Windows is installed. Try to keep at least 30 GB of free space in the C: drive.