Why Does Your Computer Take So Long To Boot Up?

Have you hit the Power button on your computer and now waiting endlessly for your Windows desktop to show up so that you can start your work? Fortunately, there are some workarounds to speed up the boot process. 

We have compiled an extensive guide to answer your question, “why does my computer take so long to boot up”. We’ll also be looking into some methods to fix the slow boot issue on your PC.  

Why Does My Computer Take So Long To Boot Up?

Some of the reasons for your computer taking so long to boot up are as follows:

1. Too many “Startup Apps” running on your PC.
2. Outdated Graphics Drivers.
3. You might have enabled “Visual Effects and Notifications” on your computer.
4. Corrupted “Temporary Files”.
5. Old or fragmented Hard Drive.
6. Your Windows operating system is outdated or infected with Malware. 

Fixing Slow Booting of Your Computer

Here are eight step-by-step methods to make your computer boot faster. 

Method #1: Disabling Startup Apps

You can disable startup apps on Windows to speed up the computer boot process. To do this:

1. Open the “Power User” menu by pressing Windows + X keys. 
2. Choose “Task Manager” from the menu and go to the “Startup” option. 
   
   
   
3. Select each service and tap on the “Disable” option.
   
4. Now, close the “Task Manager”, restart your computer, and check if the boot speed has improved.

Method #2: Turning Off Visual Effects

Another method to improve your PC’s boot speed is by turning off visual effects. For this:

1. Head to the “Start” menu, type “view advanced system settings”, and hit Enter.
   
2. Choose the “Advanced” tab from the window that opens up. 
3. Click on the “Settings” option under “Performance”.
   
4. Select the “Adjust” for the best performance option under the “Visual Effects” option.
5. Hit “Apply” and then press “OK”.
   

Method #3: Turning Off Notifications

You can follow these steps to turn off unnecessary notifications affecting your computer’s boot speed.

1. First, open the “Settings” menu on your computer. 
2. Navigate to “System”> “Notifications”.
   
3. Under the “Notifications” from apps and other senders section, toggle off the apps you don’t want to see notifications from.
4. Close the “Settings” window and check if the boot-up speed has improved.

Method #4: Optimizing Hard Drive

A fragmented hard drive can also slow down your computer. Here is how you can optimize it on your PC:

1. Open the “Settings” app on your computer.
2. Head to “System” > “Storage” > “Advanced Storage” settings.
   
3. Choose “Drive Optimization”, tap on the drive you want to defrag from the pop-up window, and hit the “Optimize” option.
   
4. You can also schedule the optimization by clicking on the “Change Settings” option and selecting the frequency of schedule, i.e., Daily, Weekly, Monthly.
   
5. Tick the “Increase task priority”; if three consecutive scheduled runs are missed, hit the “Choose” button, select the drives you want to optimize and select “OK”.
   

Method #5: Checking for Windows Update

A Windows Update can also escalate the boot-up speed of your computer. Follow the steps below for this:

1. Hit Windows + I keys to go to “Windows Settings” on your PC.
2. Next, navigate to the “Windows Update” tab > “Check for Updates”.
3. The update will automatically start downloading if available. 
4. Wait for some time till the update completely installs. 
5. Now, restart your computer and check for any improvements in the boot speed.
   

Method #6: Updating Graphics Drivers

Outdated graphics card drivers are another reason for a slow boot. To update them:

1. Open your PC’s “Quick Start Menu” by hitting Windows + X keys.
   
2. Choose “Device Manager” and expand “Display Adapters”.
   
3. Next, right-click on the graphics card in use. 
4. Click “Update driver” and select the “Search automatically for drivers” option.
5. Finally, restart your PC and notice if the boot-up is fast. 

Method #7: Deleting Temporary Files

Temporary files on your computer can bulk up and corrupt, causing the PC to go through a slow boot. To fix this:

1. Press the Windows + R keys and open the “Run” dialog box.
2. Type %temp% on the window and hit “OK” to go to the “Temp Folder” from C: drive where you have the Windows installed.
   
3. Select all temp files by hitting Ctrl + A keys and the delete key to initiate the process.
4. If prompted, choose to “Do this for all current items” and hit the “Continue” button.
5. Skip the files that aren’t deleted in the process.

Method #8: Removing WDI Directory Files

You can remove the WDI directory files from your PC for faster boot. To do this:

1. Press Windows + E key to open “This PC”.
2. Head to the C: drive and navigate to the “Windows” folder > “System32” folder > “WDI” folder > “Continue”.
3. Select all the files by hitting the Ctrl + A keys and hitting the delete button to remove all items.
4. If you cannot remove the “LogFiles” folder, open it and select all files inside it; go back and delete the “LogFiles” folder.  
5. Now, restart your computer and verify the fix. 

Summary

In this guide on why my computer takes so long to boot up, we have looked into the reasons for the issue and methods to pace up the boot process. If none of the methods worked, scan your computer for Malware and use a good antivirus to clean up your system.

Hopefully, you can now get to your Windows desktop faster than before.