Remember the first time you got your Windows computer? It probably booted up pretty quick and everything loaded fast. After months of using it, things started to slow down. It takes much longer to reboot now and the desktop takes a couple of minutes before it completely loads. These are but some of the signs of a slow-running Windows PC and you can make it fast again just like when you first got it. We’re going to teach you how to speed up the Startup time, Start Menu, and Right Click Menu loading of your Windows computer with a few easy-to-do tweaks.
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1. Speeding up your Windows PC startup time
You can optimize your computer’s startup speed by launching Run on your Windows computer and typing “msconfig” without the quotes. This will take you to the System Configuration Settings which has five tabs – General, Boot, Services, Startup, and Tools.
Under the General tab, you’ll find 3 startup selections: normal, diagnostic, and selective. During normal startup, all device drivers and services will be loaded by your computer. If this is ticked, it may be the reason why your computer is taking long. Choose either diagnostic or selective startup to speed up the starting time of your Windows computer. Diagnostic startup only loads basic devices and services whereas with selective startup, you can choose to load neither system services nor startup items. After making a selection select “Apply.”
Under the Boot tab, select Advanced options so you can choose the number of processors to facilitate boot speed. If you have a dual-core or quad-core processor, assigning more than one of them to help with the start-up process can significantly boost your computer’s speed. Unfortunately, this optimization tweak is not so efficient on power so if you’re using a laptop, expect some battery drain after startup.
Finally, there’s the Services and Startup tab where you can specifically choose which services and startup items are going to load.
2. Speeding up your Windows Start Menu
The Start Menu is another serious offender as it often takes time to load. Once again you need to open Run but this time, you will type “regedit.exe” to launch the Registry Editor. Go to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER folder and find Control Panel –> Desktop –> MenuShowDelay. Then, double click MenuShowDelay to edit its value. Type in the numbers on the blank and hit “OK.” Remember, the lower the value the faster the Start Menu will load.
Another trick for speeding up your Windows Start Menu would be to limit the number of shortcuts on your desktop. It could be that you just have too many icons on your desktop and that’s what is causing your computer to take long when loading the Start Menu.
3. Speeding up the Right Click Menu
Yet another disappointing slow-down that Windows users experience is the time it takes the Menu to show up when hitting the right click. Installing third-party programs that allow you to remove items from the context menu should speed it up.
Author biography: Judene Macariola is a tech geek and a Windows PC expert for 10 years. She works for BroadbandExpert.com which specializes in providing high speed internet advise.
Additionally, the everyday wear and tear of use takes a toll on your computer system. In order to increase speed and promote maximum performance, you must make changes to your computer, utilize PC tools and run specialized software for results.
Thanks for this helpful tips! My recently became to slow down when I boot up. Disabling some of the program that runs on start up do the job.
A time always comes when a computer simply doesn’t run as fast as it used to. Without proper maintenance, everyday computer activities slow down and become more of a chore than they’re worth.
This is a very informative! This is very useful in speed up your windows machine. I also prefer this kind of method than using some registry cleaner that said that it will enhance the speed of your pc.
Hey Pravin,
Thanks for this wonderful info 🙂
Will try to check it out in my laptop.
Cheers,
Michael
Hello Praveen, thanks a lot for the helpful tips ahead it actually helps me. Speeding up your windows computer can make your work more faster.
Just tried it on my oldest P4 PC and I am not sure about right click speed and start menu.. but start up time has surely decreased.. so thanks.. my pc has become lot more faster than before..
Thank you so much praveen for giving valuable information . You are doing a great job I have read many of your Post.
I am a college going student and slow startup can be irritating. Thank you for an interesting take on speeding up things. For me, keeping files that are of larger GB not on the desktop always helps. It takes that much time to startup.
hank you very much for this awesome tips. I have tried it on my computer and now I am feeling much better speed on it.