Windows XP slow startup

If you are facing Windows XP slow startup issues, there are a number of things you can do to isolate the problem and fix it, such as starting your PC in safe mode to see if you can isolate which application or device driver may be the source of the bottlenecking or messing with programs running in the Windows Start menu folder.

Another thing you can do is see if there are any programs running in the Windows registry in the following folder:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun

A little known secret that alludes to the average Windows user is that in addition to the Start menu folder in your Start menu, you can also specify programs to start in boots time in the old location in the Windows registry. This is typically reserved for apps that should apply to all users and not be restricted to specific users. You should check here for any problematic applications that are running at startup that might be causing your Windows XP slow startup issues. If you find something here that you don’t really need to start at boot time, you can delete those entries under this registry key.

Finally, if you still can’t identify the root cause of Windows XP slow startup, then your next step should be to perform a Windows registry scan. If errors are detected, they must be fixed. Furthermore, your registry should also be optimized for faster search.

Windows is most likely taking a long time to load because the registry may need to be repaired and optimized as the operating system reads the registry during startup.