blue progress bar

[bobster]

When XP SP3 is loading, how many passes of the blue progress bar is typical
before the "Welcome" screen appears? Mine use to take about 4-5 passes but
now takes about 11-12.

I have only 3 things on my msconfig start list, use MS Essentials
virus/spyware and regularly run malwarebytes. How can I reduce the number
of passes of the blue progress bar?

 

[Unknown]

Don't start/load MSE.

 

[Unknown]

PS, a modem will also cause a long boot time.

 

[bobster]

I took MS Essentials off the startup list of msconfig. I also uninstalled
the dial-up modem and its driver. No change, still takes 11-12 passes of
the blue progress bar to get to the Welcome screen.

Any other ideas out there?


PS, a modem will also cause a long boot time.

 

[VanguardLH]

When XP SP3 is loading, how many passes of the blue progress bar is typical
before the "Welcome" screen appears? Mine use to take about 4-5 passes but
now takes about 11-12.

I have only 3 things on my msconfig start list, use MS Essentials
virus/spyware and regularly run malwarebytes. How can I reduce the number
of passes of the blue progress bar?

How many startup programs you chose to load on Windows startup. How many
services are enabled and how many you added for software installs. If any
of them perform intensive disk activities (cleanup, scan, etc). If WGA
connects to go look for an update. If any of your security programs check
for an update (anti-virus, firewall, HIPS, anti-malware, etc). Some
security products are more intrusive than others during startup, like MSE
will chomp up 90%, or more, CPU usage during startup than, say, Avast. The
more you install on your host the more startup programs you end up with and
the more that want to go check for updates. Poorly coded, incompatible, or
conflicting drivers can cause enlongated startup times.

Use SysInternals' AutoRuns to see all the locations used to define startup
programs that load up on your host. msconfig will only show some of the
startup locations. Also, many services added by software installs won't
show up in msconfig because those services get rolled in a common instance
of svchost.exe. Both msconfig and AutoRuns will show the list of services
but not what is rolled into svchost.exe, so go look at your list of services
(run services.msc) to see what got added. You might also start looking in
the Event Viewer (eventvwr.exe) to see if there are any errors occurring
during startup.

 

[bobster]

Thanks for the suggestions Vanguard. I downloaded SysInternals AutoRuns and
found some left over stuff from Avast! -- "files not found" and deleted
them. Also went to Event Viewer and found several errors that were related
to the Avast! residue. After all of this "cleanup", the 11-12 blue bar
passes remain unchanged. Not sure where to look next. Guess I'll just live
with it as my XP loads in just under a minute.

=======================================================

When XP SP3 is loading, how many passes of the blue progress bar is
typical
before the "Welcome" screen appears? Mine use to take about 4-5 passes
but
now takes about 11-12.

I have only 3 things on my msconfig start list, use MS Essentials
virus/spyware and regularly run malwarebytes. How can I reduce the number
of passes of the blue progress bar?

How many startup programs you chose to load on Windows startup. How many
services are enabled and how many you added for software installs. If any
of them perform intensive disk activities (cleanup, scan, etc). If WGA
connects to go look for an update. If any of your security programs check
for an update (anti-virus, firewall, HIPS, anti-malware, etc). Some
security products are more intrusive than others during startup, like MSE
will chomp up 90%, or more, CPU usage during startup than, say, Avast. The
more you install on your host the more startup programs you end up with and
the more that want to go check for updates. Poorly coded, incompatible, or
conflicting drivers can cause enlongated startup times.

Use SysInternals' AutoRuns to see all the locations used to define startup
programs that load up on your host. msconfig will only show some of the
startup locations. Also, many services added by software installs won't
show up in msconfig because those services get rolled in a common instance
of svchost.exe. Both msconfig and AutoRuns will show the list of services
but not what is rolled into svchost.exe, so go look at your list of services
(run services.msc) to see what got added. You might also start looking in
the Event Viewer (eventvwr.exe) to see if there are any errors occurring
during startup.

 

[Twayne]

In

I took MS Essentials off the startup list of msconfig. I
also uninstalled the dial-up modem and its driver. No
change, still takes 11-12 passes of the blue progress bar
to get to the Welcome screen.

Any other ideas out there?

I'd say you're fine. You'll actually find that the number of passes varies
over time and how many cold starts and reboots you do, too. Windows
attempts to reorganize boot processes and it changes things on occasion.
9 trips and a max of about 12 seems like the average in my opinion. I've
had it as high as in the twenties long ago, but at this minute it's doing 6
passes. Some programs inherently increase it, but as a rule, it's nothing to
worry about. Specific, and variable from machine to machine, takes whatever
time it needs to get up and running and nothing more or less. Don't use it
to troubleshoot; 12 passes is fine, so would be 15 or ... .
Now if the speed of that bar changes, that would indicate something might
be out of kilter.

 

[bobster]

Thanks, Twayne, you have relieved my mind. Right now, the number of passes
varies between 9 and 12. Nothing I do seems to lower this number (I have
used MSbootvis and defrag c: -b to optimize boot times) although at one time
it was as low as 4-5. That was before I added numerous apps and
"protection".

I can't complain about boot times -- they're always under one minute and my
shutdown time is 10-15 seconds.

====================================================
In

I took MS Essentials off the startup list of msconfig. I
also uninstalled the dial-up modem and its driver. No
change, still takes 11-12 passes of the blue progress bar
to get to the Welcome screen.

Any other ideas out there?

I'd say you're fine. You'll actually find that the number of passes varies
over time and how many cold starts and reboots you do, too. Windows
attempts to reorganize boot processes and it changes things on occasion.
9 trips and a max of about 12 seems like the average in my opinion. I've
had it as high as in the twenties long ago, but at this minute it's doing 6
passes. Some programs inherently increase it, but as a rule, it's nothing to
worry about. Specific, and variable from machine to machine, takes whatever
time it needs to get up and running and nothing more or less. Don't use it
to troubleshoot; 12 passes is fine, so would be 15 or ... .
Now if the speed of that bar changes, that would indicate something might
be out of kilter.

 

[Jim]

Mine used to be 8 passes till I installed Open Office which took it to
10 .

 

[Twayne]

In

Thanks, Twayne, you have relieved my mind. Right now, the
number of passes varies between 9 and 12. Nothing I do
seems to lower this number (I have used MSbootvis and
defrag c: -b to optimize boot times) although at one time
it was as low as 4-5. That was before I added numerous
apps and "protection".

I can't complain about boot times -- they're always under
one minute and my shutdown time is 10-15 seconds.

====================================================
In

I'd say you're fine. You'll actually find that the number
of passes varies over time and how many cold starts and
reboots you do, too. Windows attempts to reorganize boot
processes and it changes things on occasion. 9 trips and
a max of about 12 seems like the average in my opinion.
I've had it as high as in the twenties long ago, but at
this minute it's doing 6 passes. Some programs inherently
increase it, but as a rule, it's nothing to worry about.
Specific, and variable from machine to machine, takes
whatever time it needs to get up and running and nothing
more or less. Don't use it to troubleshoot; 12 passes is
fine, so would be 15 or ... . Now if the speed of that bar
changes, that would indicate something might be out of
kilter.

Glad to hear it.
That's pretty much typical; every time you install something, especially
large suites, it's going to increase the amount of time needed. Some things
will change it a lot, some not at all, and other times over the next three
or four boots, you might find successively smaller numbers of trips as XP
arranges things. Beware of assigning problems to that; I've had it as hight
as 32 and eventually it settled back into place at 14.

HTH,

Twayne`

 

[Ariel]

When XP SP3 is loading, how many passes of the blue progress bar is typical
before the "Welcome" screen appears? Mine use to take about 4-5 passes but
now takes about 11-12.

I have only 3 things on my msconfig start list, use MS Essentials
virus/spyware and regularly run malwarebytes. How can I reduce the number
of passes of the blue progress bar?


.

Try this:
Go to C:\windows\prefetch folder
del all the contents inside the prefetch folder, then restart. See if
that reduces the number of passes.

or open command prompt and execute this..
C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch>del *.* /q

 

[Jose]

Try this:
     Go to C:\windows\prefetch folder
     del all the contents inside the prefetch folder, then restart.See if
that reduces the number of passes.

     or open command prompt and execute this..
     C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch>del *.* /q

Try it?

You don't know if it will have any effect of not?

Did you try it on your system and what was the result of the number of
your blue progress bar passes and your XP boot timing measurements?

Here is a discussion of how the XP Prefetch feature works. There is
nothing to try, no might be, no maybe, no could be.

Mark Russinovitch and David Solomon, wrote an excellent article called
Windows XP Kernel Improvements Create a More Robust, Powerful, and
Scalable OS in the December 2001 issue of MSDN Magazine. Their
technical credentials are impeccable, and they speak very highly of
effectiveness of this feature and describe how it works - and why you
should leave it alone.

It doesn't matter how you think it works or how manipulating the
folder may or might help your system. It is not important how you
think it works. What is important is how it really works. Read the
article and you will know how it works and why you should just leave
it alone.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc302206.aspx

Read the article and the section on prefetch yourself and do some
testing and please report your results.

 

[Twayne]

In

Try it?

You don't know if it will have any effect of not?

Did you try it on your system and what was the result of
the number of your blue progress bar passes and your XP
boot timing measurements?

Here is a discussion of how the XP Prefetch feature works.
There is nothing to try, no might be, no maybe, no could be.

Mark Russinovitch and David Solomon, wrote an excellent
article called Windows XP Kernel Improvements Create a More
Robust, Powerful, and Scalable OS in the December 2001
issue of MSDN Magazine. Their technical credentials are
impeccable, and they speak very highly of effectiveness of
this feature and describe how it works - and why you should
leave it alone.

It doesn't matter how you think it works or how
manipulating the folder may or might help your system. It
is not important how you think it works. What is important
is how it really works. Read the article and you will know
how it works and why you should just leave it alone.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc302206.aspx

Read the article and the section on prefetch yourself and
do some testing and please report your results.

lol! I wonder if you made you point, Jose <g>.

 

[Jose]

InJose <[email protected]> typed:












lol! I wonder if you made you point, Jose <g>.

Hear me now and believe me later - I have done all this legwork
before...

 

[Twayne]

In

....


Hear me now and believe me later - I have done all this
legwork before...

Yeah, too bad more people aren't more inclined to try to help themselves a
bit at least, before turning to the groups or passing out half-fast
information and guesses as the case may be.
Don't cha know you're s'posed to delete everything in the pre-fetch
folder every month or so? Yup, even the .ini since it's never mentioned in
the deletion instructs.
'Tis a wunnerful world we live in. [:^}

Cheers,

Twayne`

 

[Jose]

In

...

Hear me now and believe me later - I have done all this
legwork before...

Yeah, too bad more people aren't more inclined to try to help themselves a
bit at least, before turning to the groups or passing out half-fast
information and guesses as the case may be.
   Don't cha know you're s'posed to delete everything in the pre-fetch
folder every month or so? Yup, even the .ini since it's never mentioned in
the deletion instructs.
   'Tis a wunnerful world we live in. [:^}

Cheers,

Twayne`

Emptying the contents of the Prefetch folder is number 52 on my list
of "Most likely to suggest..." list of things I read about here that
do not make sense.

I don't keep track of any names - just the curious suggestions. I
wonder if some of my ideas are on that list...