Very Slow Windows Startup

[Dean]

I did a search for this problems, but did not find
anything on this site. I may not have gone back far enough.

Computer boots, gets to the Windows XP logo, then goes to
the Welcome screen. The Welcome screen may stay there for
5 minutes before the Desktop shows up. However if I press
Ctrl+Alt+Del 15 or 20 seconds after the Welcome screen
shows up the Welcome screen goes away and the Deskop is
there.

It seems the Desktop comes up in the normal amount of time
but the Welcome screen isn't unloading and is hiding the
Desktop. For whatever reason the Ctrl+Alt+Del seems to
terminate the Welcome screen from memory.

Any ideas as to how I can get the Welcome screen to
terminate as soon as the Desktop starts to load?

Thank you, Dean

 

[Guest]

You may have a lot of processes loading during the
welcome screen and that is why it may be taking so long.
You might want to try a program called "bootvis" which
can be found searching google. This program is simple
and shortens your boot times.

 

[S.Sengupta]

Hi Dean,
How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP [Q310560]
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310560

regards,
ssg MS-MVP
pronetworks.org

 

[Robert Christie]

Hi
I'm having similiar slow trouble as Dean's 'Very Slow
Windows Startup".
My Windows Xp operating system came as part of a HP
Pavilion 8984 package.
Therefore I don't own a Windows XP CD but can still
access Window Upgrade site as a registrered owner.

My system when it does boot up appears to be unstable and
may drop out and try to reboot it's self.
or
it may get to the login screen and drop out as I enter my
password.
or
get to the desktop and then drop out
or
boot up allow me to work 8 hours then drop out.

Like Dean I've searched the posts for and answer and
found one referring to the boot.ini file.
On using the search feature on my system to locate and
view the boot.ini file, I could not find one as such.
The search of my drive C:\ showed the following:

reboot.ini C:\Vet Configuration
Settings (my anti virus protection program)
firstboot.ini C:\hp\bin Configuration
Settings
boot.ini.backup C:|WINDOWS\pss BACKUP File

I cannot view the backup file, but the firstboot.ini is
one line.
"c:\hp\bin\cloaker.exe c:\hp\bin\inimerge
c:\windows\system32\oobe\oobeinfo.ini c:\hp\bin\merge.ini"

Should my system have a boot.ini file in a specific
directory or due to it's package nature not require one?

Can I use the msconfig file to fix my problem and
reinstall a boot.ini file or use a different method?

My system has a 40 GB hard drive of which I can only
access 33 GB, am I right in assuming the other 7 GB
hold a copy of Windows?
Can I access this partition to install a copy of the
original boot.ini file?

Hope you can help.

TIA

Regards Bob C.