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How to measure PC startup time
To measure the startup time of the operating system we can use different methods, some faster and others slightly more complex. If our computer starts up within 15 seconds of pressing the power button, there are no particular problems; if instead the startup time exceeds 20 seconds or even more we need to find out what slows down the PC at startup.
Start-up time control from Task Manager
The quickest way to check for PC startup is to use Activity management, the new task manager present in Windows 10. To carry out this type of control, press the right button on the taskbar at the bottom, select the item Activity management, we press if necessary on the item More details, let’s go to the Start tab and check the time recorded next to the item Last BIOS life.
This value indicates an estimate of the boot speed from when the BIOS starts until arriving at the user’s screen (ie the screen where you choose the user and enter the system password). Unfortunately, not all computers on the market support this feature: a new version of the UEFI BIOS must be present in order to offer this estimate on the system boot speed. On unsupported computers, the value shown is always zero, so it is useless.
To learn more about the difference between BIOS and UEFI, we invite you to read our guide How to access UEFI on new PCs and how it changes from the BIOS.
READ ALSO: How to Reduce PC BIOS and Boot-Time
Boot time control with BootRacer
Another very interesting program that we can use to Measure the PC startup and shutdown time is BootRacer, available for free download from the official website.
With this program, we can analyze the entire startup phase of the computer and thus find out how long it takes to start, also calculating the time required to open the desktop. After installing the program let’s start it, press on Full Boot Test, click on Start Test then we reboot the system. The program will start as a system service together with Windows 10 (probably the first program) and, after logging in, a countdown will start that will show the result, with the times for the various phases of the computer startup.
The program also shows if the PC is relatively fast or too slow, so you know immediately whether to intervene with one of the programs in the next chapter.
Start time control via Event Viewer
The Event Viewer is the Windows log and records everything that happens on the computer, including installations, hardware errors, programs used, processes started and stopped, permissions, network connections, etc. Each event is marked with an ID number and is assigned a severity level ranging from Critic and Information.
To open the Events viewer we open the Start menu at the bottom left and look for the app Event Viewer. The Windows 10 Event Viewer displays a tree structure with the categories of events in the left sidebar, the event list in the center, and the actions on the right. The events that show the time taken by the computer to turn on are those with a number ID 100 while those concerning the shutdown have the number 200.
Without looking in the heap, in Windows you can view the log on and off opening the following path from the left tree menu:
Registri Applicazioni e Servizi -> Microsoft -> Windows -> Diagnostics-Performance -> Operativo
The list of events is sorted chronologically, by date and time and another column shows the ID number which is either 100 (computer start-up) or 200 (shutdown); if we click on one of the lines we can see the details of that event. Each time you press on an event 100 it can be read the duration of the computer startup in milliseconds (e.g. Startup Duration: 82526ms). This value must be divided by 1000 to find the time in seconds (in the example, 82 seconds).
Analyzing the proposed data we can sum up the system startup speed: if the startup time is greater than 60 seconds, the event viewer shows an Error, if instead, it measured a time greater than 100 seconds it would show the symbol of critical error as it would take too long.
If we are not used to using milliseconds we can use an online converter to convert milliseconds into seconds or minutes.
Finally, TurnedOnTimesView is a simple free tool that reads the Windows event log, processes it, and extracts the relevant data computer startup and shutdown making them easy to read. In other words, it provides a register with indicated the exact time each computer is turned on or restarted. Extract the archive and then, without installing anything, start the program from the executable file to see all the logs of when the PC was turned on (Startup Time) when he was arrested (Shutdown Time) and the duration of what is left on.
Duration gives an exact idea of how long the PC has been used. The fifth column gives an indication of the type of shutdown, whether it was a normal shutdown or a failed restart.
The stop code of the last column can be searched on this page to understand what type of error occurred. The log can be saved as an HTML report.
How to speed up a slow PC on startup
If the startup time of the computer is always too long (therefore comparing the Startup duration for several days), greater than a minute or 100 seconds, there may be some problem: either the computer is too weak for Windows 7 or there are too many programs starting.
The best program for Automatically optimize your computer’s ignition is Autoruns available for Windows 10 from the official site.
Whenever you install a new program that requires automatic-start, you can use this information on the total on-time to measure its impact.
Using this program we can immediately check the programs that are placed in auto-start, blocking those that are not necessary or that risk slowing down our computer too much.
Another method to speed up the computer start-up as much as possible, we invite you to shut down your pc with automatic reboot and hibernation.
Similar speech can be made for the computer shutdown duration which, at times, slows down or freezes due to programs and processes that do not want to close.
With the diagnostic tool, MSConfig can troubleshoot Windows startup problems and see if you can disable any entries from the auto start.
Conclusions
The startup of a modern PC with Windows 10 should always be very fast, but a lot also depends on the programs set in auto-start, on the operating system settings, on the type of antivirus used, and also on the presence or absence of updates: after an update of system reboot can take a long time, especially for major releases.
To learn more we can read our guides shut down your computer faster.
If the problem is the antivirus instead, we can choose a new lighter program like those seen in the guide Free Cloud Antivirus with online protection and scanning for malware and viruses.