Desktop takes time to appear

S

Saurabh

Greetings!!!

I have winxp with sp2, everything is perfect untill desktop loads. When i
just enter my username password and login .. welcome sound does come, but
only my cursor is visible. It takes around 50 secs to 1 min to load. After
that everything isfine. Have checked event logs, but no error. Have clean
startup applications too.

Awaiting for your kind help

Thanks

- Saurabh
 
I

inavlis

Hi Saurabh,

There could be several reasons to why it takes a little more time to load
your desktop. Possibly, you are having too many startup applications running
in the background. They could be clean and not harmful but as long they are
running they are taking your resources. Try disabling some of them to enhance
your PC's performance. Furthermore, it could be also due to services that
running on your background. You could give a look at them by running
"services.msc" and turn off (or set it to delayed start up perhaps) services
that you think unnecessary to run at windows startup.

Hope this help,
 
A

Alias

Saurabh said:
Greetings!!!

I have winxp with sp2, everything is perfect untill desktop loads. When i
just enter my username password and login .. welcome sound does come, but
only my cursor is visible. It takes around 50 secs to 1 min to load. After
that everything isfine. Have checked event logs, but no error. Have clean
startup applications too.

Awaiting for your kind help

Thanks

- Saurabh

Do you have anything saved on the desktop like a folder full of videos
or music? The only thing that should be on the desktop are shortcuts,
not actual files.

Take a look in MSCONFIG under the Start Up tab to see what you have
running when Windows loads. To access MSCONFIG, type MSCONFIG in the Run
box and hit Enter.

Alias
 
S

Saurabh

Hello Friends,

I have no files on he desktop except 10 to 15 short cuts.. i guess thats is
enough to keep.

I have gone thru regedit for running startup application, and have removed
almost every one.

So, i dont think so if its b'coz of any startup programme or strtp services.

Any other clues ???
 
M

Malke

Saurabh said:
Greetings!!!

I have winxp with sp2, everything is perfect untill desktop loads. When i
just enter my username password and login .. welcome sound does come, but
only my cursor is visible. It takes around 50 secs to 1 min to load. After
that everything isfine. Have checked event logs, but no error. Have clean
startup applications too.

Well, *something* is running that is causing the delay. You just haven't
found it yet. I see that you still have SP2. Since you haven't been keeping
your operating system patched, perhaps your computer is infected.

The first step is to make sure the computer is virus/malware-free:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

The second step (if the machine was clean and infection wasn't the issue) is
to do clean-boot troubleshooting:

Clean boot in Windows XP - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353
Clean-boot advanced troubleshooting in Windows XP -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316434
How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP -
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310560

The free Autoruns program is very useful for managing your Startup -
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/default.mspx - Autoruns

The third step after you've fixed all the problems is to update to Service
Pack 3. Do not neglect to do the proper preparations.

Prerequisites for a successful installation - MVP Harry Waldron -
http://tinyurl.com/6nf4k4
Steps to take before you install WinXP SP3 -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950717
WinXP SP3 Installation -
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsxp/cc164204.aspx
The hard disk space requirements for WinXP SP3 -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947311

SP3 Post-Installation Cleanup -
http://www.aumha.net/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=33827

Malke
 
A

Alias

Saurabh said:
Hello Friends,

I have no files on he desktop except 10 to 15 short cuts.. i guess thats is
enough to keep.

I have gone thru regedit for running startup application, and have removed
almost every one.

So, i dont think so if its b'coz of any startup programme or strtp services.

Any other clues ???

And the last time you defragged your C drive was?

Download and install Crap Cleaner and run the Clean up feature before
you do a defrag. Get it at http://www.ccleaner.com/

Alias
 
E

Engin Tarhan

You have not stated
a) the speed of the cpu, the size of the memory, and the amount of free disk
space,
b) when exactly this problem appeared (after what).

This information may or may not be helful to diagnose.

Good luck,
Engin
 
K

Ken Blake, MVP

Greetings!!!

I have winxp with sp2, everything is perfect untill desktop loads. When i
just enter my username password and login .. welcome sound does come, but
only my cursor is visible. It takes around 50 secs to 1 min to load. After
that everything isfine. Have checked event logs, but no error. Have clean
startup applications too.


50 seconds to 1 minute is not very long, and if everything else is
fine, I would ignore it. It's not a problem.

Here's my standard post on this subject:

My personal view is that the attention many people pay to how long it
takes to boot is unwarranted. Assuming that the computer's speed is
otherwise satisfactory, it may not be worth worrying about. Most
people start their computers once a day or even less frequently. In
the overall scheme of things, even a few minutes to start up isn't
very important. Personally I power on my computer when I get up in the
morning, then go get my coffee. When I come back, it's done booting. I
don't know how long it took to boot and I don't care.

However if you do want to address it, it may be because of what
programs start automatically, and you may want to stop some of them
from starting that way. On each program you don't want to start
automatically, check its Options to see if it has the choice not to
start (make sure you actually choose the option not to run it, not
just a "don't show icon" option). Many can easily and best be stopped
that way. If that doesn't work, run MSCONFIG from the Start | Run
line, and on the Startup tab, uncheck the programs you don't want to
start automatically.

However, if I were you, I wouldn't do this just for the purpose of
running the minimum number of programs. Despite what many people tell
you, you should be concerned, not with how *many* of these programs
you run, but *which*. Some of them can hurt performance severely, but
others have no effect on performance.

Don't just stop programs from running willy-nilly. What you should do
is determine what each program is, what its value is to you, and what
the cost in performance is of its running all the time. You can get
more information about these with google searches and asking about
specifics here.

Once you have that information, you can make an intelligent informed
decision about what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of.
 
A

Alias

50 seconds to 1 minute is not very long, and if everything else is
fine, I would ignore it. It's not a problem.

Read it again. It takes a minute to go from the Welcome screen to the
desktop. That is NOT normal, is a problem and should NOT be ignored.

Alias
 

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