1:00 AM
Paul B
Have you ever troubleshot a computer that took forever to start up after a user logged in? Nine times out of ten they probably had a heap load of stuff that started at login time. Stuff like instant messengers, software updaters, backup software, anti-virus, etc. You get the picture. Sure you can disable a lot of that from starting up at all when a user logs in, but what if they really need a programs to run at startup, they just need to be able to login and get to work faster?
I found a nice little free tool that will let you delay essential programs instead of stopping them. Thus allowing a faster login time, and still be allowed to have processes that run at login. It’s called Startup Delayer from R2 Studios.
You can set your own delay sensitivity when you first run the program. Make it so that nothing will start until the computer is idol, or even start fast and only take slight consideration to CPU and Disk usage.
From their page:
Startup Delayer gives you the power to optimize your Startup Process by delaying applications from starting up as soon as you log into your computer.
By delaying the applications during start up, your computer becomes usable a lot faster. Startup Delayer will then start launching your delayed applications when your computer is more idle.
Does it take quite some time till your computer is ready to use? Do you find your computer is really unresponsive even though you can already see the Desktop? Do you want more control over what starts on your computer?
When Windows loads it's Startup file, it attempts to load every program in there at the same time. Therefore if you have quite a lot of programs starting when Windows starts, each program will try and grab CPU and Disk time so that it can load.
If each program tries to do this at the same time, you soon notice the slow down that occurs due to your CPU trying to help all the programs to load, and your hard disk accessing multiple files.
Startup Delayer allows you add some order to this process by determining the best time to launch your Applications. You can choose to do this based on how idle your computer is, or you can set an arbitrary time.
Startup delayer is pretty awesome if you ask me. As you can see in the screen shot, I have a lot of junk running when I login as well. This little beauty has sped up my logins considerably since I found it. I highly recommend it for users with slow login times.
Know of any other good free tools to help speed up the login process? Let us know in the comments!
