It is really frustrating when for some reason Windows takes up a lot of time to start-up or shutdown and you have no idea why it is happening. You desperately want to make Windows fast and try out almost all tips available to speed up Windows. But, at-last you still find Windows slow. Slow down a bit and think again as the reason for Windows sluggish response might be hidden during Windows start-up or shutdown.

Now, if Windows would have displayed every details of what it is loading during starting or what it is unloading during shutdown like Linux does, it would have been very easy to find out the cause. Don’t despair as even though Windows may not show you every details but you can ask Windows to display some more detailed information during start-up and shutdown through this simple registry hack.

When you instruct Windows to display verbose output during start-up and shutdown, it displays you a little more details about what it is doing during start-up, shutdown, login or log off instead of just displaying the standard messages. It is very handy for Windows diagnostic and find out which service or process is causing the delay.

If you want to do the registry hack yourself then follow the guide below otherwise simply download the ZIP archive from here. After downloading, open the archive file and double-click the Enable-Verbose.reg file to import it into the registry. To disable verbose display, simply import Disable-Verbose.reg into the registry. If you get UAC prompt or other confirmation during import, simply click on Yes to allow importing the .reg file into the registry.

• Press Windows Key + R to open the Run dialog box, type regedit and press Enter to open the Registry Editor. Windows 7 and Vista users will get UAC prompt, click Yes, to open the Registry Editor.

• Now, browse to the following key:

  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

• In the right pane, right-click and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value or DWORD value and name it as VerboseStatus.

• Double-click on VerboseStatus DWORD to set its value as 1 with base as Hexadecimal.

  

• Now, Windows will display detailed information during start-up and shutdown.

• If you want to disable verbose display, simply set the value of VerboseStatus as 0 instead of 1.

Simple isn’t it? Now you can easily find what is wrong with Windows and disable the service or program that is causing trouble. Share your views through comments below about this tip!

You want to startup Windows as quickly as possible the next time you start your computer. After all no one wants to wait 3-4 minutes for Windows to completely boot and load all the components. Usually, if you keep your computer in Sleep mode or use the Hibernate feature, then you will notice faster computer boot up. But if you are constantly use this method and start Windows after keeping it into Sleep or Hibernate mode, you will notice that Windows slowly becomes sluggish.

Windows works better when it is completely shutdown and then started up again. If you reboot your computer once, you will find it again fast. This is because when you reboot Windows clears a lot of data from cache files, Windows also applies the pending updates, and programs and services that may have become non-responsive are stopped and then started again. If you want to get the benefits of a reboot and still start quickly out of a hibernation, then there is a little geeky tool to help you.

Boot Snooze is a freeware portable application that combines the benefits of a complete Windows system reboot and boot quickly out of sleep or hibernation.

After download, start Boot Snooze and then click on the “Restart then Standby” or “Restart then Hibernate” button. Your computer will automatically shutdown, and restart again, and then will display a small dialog box with a countdown timer, and then go into standby or hibernate mode. The timer displayed allows you to change your mind if you need to and stop the Standby or Hibernate process. Now, the next time when you start using your computer again, it will be faster than when you do a cold boot.

Note: For hibernation to work, your computer must have “Enable hibernation” already checked under your Control Panel > Power Options > Hibernate tab.

Do you have any tip or application which you use to speed up computer boot times? Share with us below in the comments!

[ Download Boot Snooze ]

One thing I don’t like about Windows 7 or Vista is their habit of changing the Shutdown or Sleep button into an “Install Updates and then Shut Down computer” button when any pending Windows Updates to be installed. I wanted to put an end to this and tried to find out a better permanent solution then my previous solution. I found a small registry hack that can put an end to this problem permanently and reducing our headaches.

Follow the steps below carefully:

• Open the Registry Editor by typing regedit in the Run dialog box. (Goto Start Menu > Run, or, press [Windows Key ] + [ R ] to access the Run dialog box.)
• Now, browse down to the following Registry key or create the key if it doesn’t exist.
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU to apply the hack for all users OR HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU to apply the hack to your user account only.
• Create a new entry by right-clicking on the right pane and choosing “New DWORD“ and name it NoAUAsDefaultShutdownOption, set its value of 1.
• Now our normal Shutdown or Sleep button should be back while also providing the Install Updates and Shut Down option, should you want to install the pending Windows Updates at shut down.
• If you want the default option back, just set the value of NoAUAsDefaultShutdownOption to 0.

Do you have any other solutions to this problem? Well, comment about it, discuss or share the solution with us.

If you use Windows 7, then you may miss the normal shutdown option when pending installations of Windows updates are available. In place of the normal shut down option Windows 7 just gives you the option to “Shut down and Install Patches“.

But if you are in a hurry and wants to postpone the update/patch installation to a later time, then there is a simple way around for normally shutting down Windows.

The simple trick is to first press [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [Delete] and then choosing the Shut down option, as you can see in the image above. Another better solution to this which involves a simple registry hack can be found here.