Microsoft: Jumpstart for slow PCs

Microsoft will help Windows 10 and Windows 11 users optimize their computers. Microsoft has identified the boot process as one of the most important areas for optimization.

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To speed up the Windows startup, a new Microsoft support website from the beginning of the week – the Wayback Machine indexed it for the first time on Monday – provides helpful information. There, Microsoft employees describe how the Windows startup speed can be improved using onboard tools.

Customize the applications that start

The article focuses on applications that start automatically when the computer boots up. These can take up a lot of time and even affect the overall performance of the system. The supporters present several Windows tools that should make optimization easy.

The first way presented leads via “Settings” to “Apps” and then to “Autostart”. There you can control the automatic start of apps by simply flipping the on/off switch. The second way is via the task manager, which can be opened by right-clicking on the taskbar. The “Autostart of apps” tab also shows software that starts automatically. By right-clicking on an entry you can activate or prevent autostart. There you will also find a display showing how much the respective app extends the start time.

Other automatically starting apps can be found using the File Explorer. Windows starts applications that are located in the directories %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup as well as %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup . Those interested can delete shortcuts to applications that should not be started automatically here.

Users can also examine the autostart areas in the registry. However, since this can damage the system registry and prevent Windows from starting, only advanced users should attempt this. The registry paths are HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run, HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run as well as HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.

Lame system: Software is not always to blame

Many people are probably familiar with these tools and tips, but not everyone is familiar with the Windows tools. If Windows is slow, there may be other reasons for this. Real hardware damage can slow down startup times and prevent the system from starting up completely. In this case, it may be helpful to take a look at the Windows event logs to see whether error messages are appearing more frequently. But programs that check their registry online, for example, can also lead to delays if the Internet connection is shaky. However, Microsoft’s support article provides a good guide for initial startup optimization on a Windows PC.

In the foreseeable future, Microsoft’s PC Manager will probably be an integral part of Windows 11. In it, Microsoft collects tools that can be used to clean and optimize the system in such a way that functionality is not subsequently affected. This has often been noticed negatively in commercial PC optimization software in the past.

(dmk)