# Very Slow Start and very, very slow restart



## ahduncu (Feb 8, 2010)

I have recently noticed that my computer seems to start very slowly, from a complete shutdown and extremely slow from a restart. It takes about 5 minutes to start and it takes about 10 to 15 minutes to start from the restart. I have not added anything to my start programs for years, so I don't think that is the problem. However, I only have 4G memory, is it possible that Microsoft Windows 10 is causing this problem?
My Windows version is Windows 10 Professional, Version 1703, Build 15063.540.


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## Deejay100six (Nov 24, 2007)

Hi,

Right click on the taskbar and select *Task Manager*

Select the startup tab to see what programs are set to auto start.

You may be surprised to see how many there are.

Right click on any item to disable.


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## djaburg (May 15, 2008)

Several things can cause that. I'd start looking in event viewer to see if there are any errors related to the HD or other hardware/software.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Hi, was this a upgrade to win 10 and if so do you still have a windows old folder, you can check by following the steps here https://www.cnet.com/uk/how-to/how-to-delete-the-windows-old-folder-from-windows-10/


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## ahduncu (Feb 8, 2010)

I looked in event viewer and found dozens of errors and warnings, all of which mean nothing to me, they occur on every day and I have no technical knowledge to know what to do about them. As far as startup programs, all of them seem what is necessary for the computer to start correctly, I have disabled what I know is unnecessary. I have uninstalled the old Windows program because I do not need it.
I will try restarting to see if there is a difference.


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## ahduncu (Feb 8, 2010)

I restarted today and it took a full 10 minutes. Also, when I restarted my Internet icon turned grayed out, I restarted again and it went back to full view. In any case, there is no difference in my internet service when the icon is grayed out or full!!


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Run Chkdsk.

To begin the scan, right-click on the Drive which you wish to check and select Properties. Next, click on Tools tab and under Error-checking, click on the Check button. This option will check the drive for file system errors.


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## ahduncu (Feb 8, 2010)

joeten said:


> Run Chkdsk.
> 
> To begin the scan, right-click on the Drive which you wish to check and select Properties. Next, click on Tools tab and under Error-checking, click on the Check button. This option will check the drive for file system errors.


The scan found no errors.


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## jenae (Jun 17, 2008)

Hi, we need to have a good look at your system, go to search and type:- command prompt, right click on the returned command prompt and select "run as administrator" an elevated cmd prompt will open copy and paste all the text below into the cmd prompt window:-

echo > 0 & systeminfo | find /V /I "hotfix" | find /V "KB" >> 0 & WMIC /Node:localhost /Namespace:\\root\SecurityCenter2 Path AntiVirusProduct Get displayName /format:list >> 0 & wmic PATH Win32_VideoController GET Description,PNPDeviceID /format:list >> 0 & tasklist /v >> 0 & net start >> 0 & echo >> 0 & notepad 0

Press enter, notepad will open with quite a bit of data, please ATTACH this data here in your next reply. Could you also tell us if you have ever had any Anti Virus program (other then your current) on your machine (even a trial).


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## ahduncu (Feb 8, 2010)

jenae said:


> Hi, we need to have a good look at your system, go to search and type:- command prompt, right click on the returned command prompt and select "run as administrator" an elevated cmd prompt will open copy and paste all the text below into the cmd prompt window:-
> 
> echo > 0 & systeminfo | find /V /I "hotfix" | find /V "KB" >> 0 & WMIC /Node:localhost /Namespace:\\root\SecurityCenter2 Path AntiVirusProduct Get displayName /format:list >> 0 & wmic PATH Win32_VideoController GET Description,PNPDeviceID /format:list >> 0 & tasklist /v >> 0 & net start >> 0 & echo >> 0 & notepad 0
> 
> Press enter, notepad will open with quite a bit of data, please ATTACH this data here in your next reply. Could you also tell us if you have ever had any Anti Virus program (other then your current) on your machine (even a trial).


I may have had an anti-virus many years ago, I don't remember if it was Avast or some other free antivirus, maybe AVG?


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## ahduncu (Feb 8, 2010)

Attachment, hopefully.


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## jenae (Jun 17, 2008)

Hi, thanks for that it reveals a lot and we should be able to get you up and running soon. Do you have money to increase your Ram from 4gb to 8gb? Much more to do, press the win + x keys together, select powershell (admin) an elevated powershell prompt will open.

Copy the below text and right click anywhere in the powershell cmd window, press enter if needed, and a notepad will open, it will have your startup items listed, could be a long list, if so ATTACH it, if not just post it in your reply.

Get-CimInstance Win32_StartupCommand | Select-Object Name, command, Location, User | Format-List | out-file c:\file.txt
start notepad C:\file.txt


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## ahduncu (Feb 8, 2010)

jenae said:


> Hi, thanks for that it reveals a lot and we should be able to get you up and running soon. Do you have money to increase your Ram from 4gb to 8gb? Much more to do, press the win + x keys together, select powershell (admin) an elevated powershell prompt will open.
> 
> Copy the below text and right click anywhere in the powershell cmd window, press enter if needed, and a notepad will open, it will have your startup items listed, could be a long list, if so ATTACH it, if not just post it in your reply.
> 
> ...


I can well afford increasing my memory if my laptop has a place for it.
I have tried to get a text file using Powershell but the notepad comes up blank. I have tried also using the command prompt (admin) but the same result.
I am attaching a copy of my startup programs from Ccleaner, if that will give you any help.


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## jenae (Jun 17, 2008)

Hi, well you are a moderate user (which means more then me) and you only have 4 gb of memory. Pagefile is taking a hit and memory compression is working as well. Increasing your ram to 8 gb will make a significant improvement in your performance.

Now you have bit defender running and you have windows defender running, two anti Virus programs will and do conflict with each other, as does the windows firewall and any other.

MS are hardening the security of windows ten and for the home user the most suitable protection is windows defender and windows firewall. Both integrate well into the OS and offer protection as good as or better then any other. Be wary of AV reviews, many are sponsored or directly associated with the winning util. 

Bit defender should be uninstalled you need to do this with their uninstaller, go here:-

https://www.bitdefender.com/uninstall/

In addition you have a lot of programs set to start at boot. In fact you can turn off ALL start programs and windows will boot without problems. Open task manager, start tab and disable all except windows defender.

Now you have a lot of bloat ware (lenova etc) we will uninstall most of this later, bonjour service is a resource hog and slows internet. Have you cleaned out your temp files and browser history. Why do you use Vivaldi as well as chrome? 

Do you have the free version of Malwarebytes, or the full paid for version?

Make the changes I suggest (it is your computer, so it is up to you, however if you do not your situation will only get worse).

Test how it is running and come back for more tweaking.


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## ahduncu (Feb 8, 2010)

1. Windows Defender is not running, only BitDefender.
2. My Temp files and browser history are removed very frequently, I use Ccleaner.
3. Malwarebytes is the free version.
4. Vivaldi is my default browser, I have Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox installed just in case Vivaldi causes trouble.
I have not attempted to turn off all my start programs because I want to think about that. There are programs that I want running when I start, such as Malwarebytes Anti-exploit and BitDefender Anti-Ransomware.


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## axe0 (Jun 15, 2016)

The Windows Defender startup item is from Windows Defender Security Center.

Please perform a clean boot: https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

Do you have external devices (mouse) plugged in when booting?


From personal experience, Bitdefender tends to start after logging in even when its services are disabled.


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## ahduncu (Feb 8, 2010)

axe0 said:


> The Windows Defender startup item is from Windows Defender Security Center.
> 
> Please perform a clean boot: https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows
> 
> ...


I did a clean boot and found that there is no appreciable speed up in the restart time, with the clean boot it took 9 minutes and after I enabled all the startup items it took the same 9 minutes!
Yes, I have a Logitech wireless mouse plugged in at all times.
Bitdefender did start even though it was disabled.


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## axe0 (Jun 15, 2016)

How old is your laptop?
Could you see if booting in safe mode makes a difference.


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## ahduncu (Feb 8, 2010)

axe0 said:


> How old is your laptop?
> Could you see if booting in safe mode makes a difference.


The computer is more than 5 years old (2012 model). I'll try starting in safe mode when I get a chance.


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## ahduncu (Feb 8, 2010)

axe0 said:


> How old is your laptop?
> Could you see if booting in safe mode makes a difference.


Booting in safe mode makes a big difference - only 3 minutes to restart as opposed to 9 minutes normally. Obviously, some of my programs are delaying the restart, but which ones? It does not seem worth the effort to try to find out, it could entail a lot of work if that is possible.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

> Please perform a clean boot: https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/...oot-in-windows


 If you did a _Clean Boot_ as outlined, it would be the same as booting into Safe Mode, it removes all startup items and services not necessary to booting the computer. If that works, then add one startup item or service rebooting each time. Until the computer starts lagging at bootup, then you will know the problematic program. 
We still suggest uninstalling Bit Defender with the _Uninstall _tool linked, this should improve the speed of your computer.


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## ahduncu (Feb 8, 2010)

spunk.funk said:


> If you did a _Clean Boot_ as outlined, it would be the same as booting into Safe Mode, it removes all startup items and services not necessary to booting the computer. If that works, then add one startup item or service rebooting each time. Until the computer starts lagging at bootup, then you will know the problematic program.
> We still suggest uninstalling Bit Defender with the _Uninstall _tool linked, this should improve the speed of your computer.


It's not worth the effort!!
But, thanks for the suggestion, I will uninstall Bitdefender and see what happens.


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## herewegoinvt (Dec 14, 2007)

For about 3/4 of the Windows 10 upgrades I've done, I found that I needed to run DISM (Microsoft Windows Deployment Image Servicing and Management) some errors and corruption in the networking devices.

All of the machines I saw having issues, like slow startups, were appreciably faster. If you don't have the technical experience to run it - find someone who does (even if you have to pay them a few bucks to do it).


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## Zoandar (Aug 18, 2008)

May I ask, how long has it been since you either did a factory restore, or formatted the hard drive and did a clean install of Windows from scratch?


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## b1med2ed (Nov 11, 2008)

I remember having the same problem, back then 8-10 months ago. The way I fixed the issue was by applying the clean boot procedure until I found the culprit, which was the "App readiness" in Services. I just disabled the latter and everything came back to normal. I have never re-enabled "App Readiness", but Microsoft did with its subsequent Cumulative Updates (CU). Even so, the slow startup has never reappeared.

For the clean boot procedure, you can Google it and you will find lots of nicely written articles about how to do it. 

Lastly, I don't see why you should disable or uninstall Bitdefender, since once you install a new anti-virus program, Windows will automatically disable its built-in Windows Defender. To all intents and purposes, your problem has to do with one of your other startup programs and the clean boot procedure should be able to pinpoint which one.


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## mellaby (May 8, 2009)

Zoandar said:


> May I ask, how long has it been since you either did a factory restore, or formatted the hard drive and did a clean install of Windows from scratch?


Finally a a solution that will clean up your problem. Accord to your specs you should be able to run just fine on 4G's of ram. Download win 10 to a USB stick and do a clean install.


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## ruggb (Dec 21, 2008)

mellaby said:


> Finally a a solution that will clean up your problem. Accord to your specs you should be able to run just fine on 4G's of ram. Download win 10 to a USB stick and do a clean install.


why would you think a clean install would be worth his effort if searching for the offending program was not worth the effort to him. Sounds like he wants a new computer. Plenty of people looking to sell them.


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## ahduncu (Feb 8, 2010)

Zoandar said:


> May I ask, how long has it been since you either did a factory restore, or formatted the hard drive and did a clean install of Windows from scratch?





b1med2ed said:


> I remember having the same problem, back then 8-10 months ago. The way I fixed the issue was by applying the clean boot procedure until I found the culprit, which was the "App readiness" in Services. I just disabled the latter and everything came back to normal. I have never re-enabled "App Readiness", but Microsoft did with its subsequent Cumulative Updates (CU). Even so, the slow startup has never reappeared.
> 
> For the clean boot procedure, you can Google it and you will find lots of nicely written articles about how to do it.
> 
> Lastly, I don't see why you should disable or uninstall Bitdefender, since once you install a new anti-virus program, Windows will automatically disable its built-in Windows Defender. To all intents and purposes, your problem has to do with one of your other startup programs and the clean boot procedure should be able to pinpoint which one.





mellaby said:


> Finally a a solution that will clean up your problem. Accord to your specs you should be able to run just fine on 4G's of ram. Download win 10 to a USB stick and do a clean install.


I have never done a clean install, that I recall, and I find that it's not really worth the effort on a 5 year old computer that seems to be running well, except for the slow start and restart. I have disabled "App Readiness" and we'll see if that makes a difference.


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## b1med2ed (Nov 11, 2008)

ahduncu said:


> I have never done a clean install, that I recall, and I find that it's not really worth the effort on a 5 year old computer that seems to be running well, except for the slow start and restart. I have disabled "App Readiness" and we'll see if that makes a difference.


Be careful, in my case it was "App Readiness". Maybe, in your case, it is not. You have to go through the clean boot procedure to find out which one of your startup programs is causing the slow startup.

One word of advice is to take your time to do it right, meaning the clean boot procedure. Otherwise, if not done properly, things can get pretty messy...:huh:


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## b1med2ed (Nov 11, 2008)

Here is a link for the clean boot procedure in Microsoft Community forum. You are free to try to find other articles more convenient to your taste:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows


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## Deejay100six (Nov 24, 2007)

b1med2ed said:


> Lastly, I don't see why you should disable or uninstall Bitdefender


Not a particularly good AV imo and very likely hogging resources.

Windows Defender (formerly Microsoft Security Essentials in Windows 7) is quite capable and has a lighter footprint.


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## b1med2ed (Nov 11, 2008)

Deejay100six said:


> Not a particularly good AV imo and very likely hogging resources.
> 
> Windows Defender (formerly Microsoft Security Essentials in Windows 7) is quite capable and has a lighter footprint.


Even if it is the A-V hogging resources, the clean boot procedure should be able to find that it is the cause of the slow startup. On the other hand, my point was there shouldn't be any conflict between two anti-virus programs, since Windows Defender will automatically disable itself once it realizes there is another anti-virus program running on the computer.

Regards :smile:


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## b1med2ed (Nov 11, 2008)

@ahduncu,

I forgot to mention that you can even use autoruns utility to pinpoint the offending startup program slowing down your PC whenever you restart:

Clean Boot Windows Using the Autoruns Utility


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## Deejay100six (Nov 24, 2007)

b1med2ed said:


> Even if it is the A-V hogging resources, the clean boot procedure should be able to find that it is the cause of the slow startup. On the other hand, my point was there shouldn't be any conflict between two anti-virus programs, since Windows Defender will automatically disable itself once it realizes there is another anti-virus program running on the computer.
> 
> Regards :smile:


I do see your point and theres nothing at all wrong with your approach to the problem, its just that we see many similar issues which end up having been caused by bloated antivirus software so, sometimes it can be a good starting point.

Process Explorer is another app that may help in this instance although, in my experience, its a little overwhelming if you're not used to it.


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## ahduncu (Feb 8, 2010)

b1med2ed said:


> I remember having the same problem, back then 8-10 months ago. The way I fixed the issue was by applying the clean boot procedure until I found the culprit, which was the "App readiness" in Services. I just disabled the latter and everything came back to normal. I have never re-enabled "App Readiness", but Microsoft did with its subsequent Cumulative Updates (CU). Even so, the slow startup has never reappeared.
> 
> For the clean boot procedure, you can Google it and you will find lots of nicely written articles about how to do it.
> 
> Lastly, I don't see why you should disable or uninstall Bitdefender, since once you install a new anti-virus program, Windows will automatically disable its built-in Windows Defender. To all intents and purposes, your problem has to do with one of your other startup programs and the clean boot procedure should be able to pinpoint which one.


I disabled App readiness and it made no difference in the restart time.

I will try the clean boot, etc when I have a full day in which to play with it. It's going to be very time consuming.

I have used BitDefender anti-virus for many years, it's one of the top rated anti-virus as far as I can tell. When I get the time, I will uninstall it and try restarting with Windows Defender as an experiment.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

> I will try the clean boot, etc when I have a full day in which to play with it.


 A Clean Boot will take a few minutes. The computer should run fine after that. You can leave it this way if you like. 
if you want to get into what the specific program, service or driver is that is causing the problem, then that will take a little time. You don't have to do it all in one day. Just add one thing, restart run the computer for a while, and if it still seems ok, then add another thing etc. This can be done over several days. When the computer starts acting up, you have found your issue.


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## ss786 (Sep 20, 2004)

Hi,

I had a similar problem once, and it was caused by Bit Defender changing the IO mode of my hard disk from DMA (Direct Memory Access) to PIO (Programmed Input Output).

To see if this has happened on your machine, you need to go into the Device Manager. (On Windows 10, right-click the Start button and select Device Manager from the menu that appears.)

In the Device Manager, open the branch that says "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers". In the branch you will find entries for Primary IDE Channel and Secondary IDE Channel.

Double-click on the Primary IDE Channel entry (or right-click and select Properties) and in the dialog box that appears, select the Advanced Settings tab. Here, you'll see a list of devices connected to the Primary IDE Channel. If the "Current Transfer Mode" is listed as PIO for any device, select "DMA if available" from the Transfer Mode drop-down list for that device. Click on OK to close the dialog box.

Repeat the above steps for the Secondary IDE Channel entry as well.

Finally, close all dialog boxes and programs and reboot your machine.

Hope this helps.


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## ahduncu (Feb 8, 2010)

ss786 said:


> Hi,
> 
> I had a similar problem once, and it was caused by Bit Defender changing the IO mode of my hard disk from DMA (Direct Memory Access) to PIO (Programmed Input Output).
> 
> ...


I found "Standard SATA AHCI Controller", not any of the above.


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## ss786 (Sep 20, 2004)

No problem.

I am not familiar with "Standard SATA AHCI Controller", but please open that branch and check if there is "Primary ??? controller" or "Secondary ??? controller" as I have described in my solution. I think in the case of SATA, they are called Channel 0, and Channel 1 and so on.

Double-click on the Channel 0 and you should see a Channel properties dialog box. Click on the Advanced Settings tab and at the bottom you should see an Enable DMA option. Select that option if it is not selected. (If it is already selected, then the problem lies elsewhere and my solution won't work.)

Do similarly for the Channel 2 (and any more Channels you can see there).

Finally, close all dialog boxes and reboot your machine.

Hope this helps.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

I have the same as the OP. When you expand _IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers_, I get two _Standard SATA AHCI Controllers_. No Primary or Secondary, On Right clicking either of these, There is no _Advanced Settings_ tab if you are using SATA drives, you won't see DMA since it will not apply.This only applies to PATA, ATA, IDE drives.


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## ahduncu (Feb 8, 2010)

I uninstalled BitDefender anti-virus and let Windows Defender take over. Absolutely no difference in the restart times, in fact it might be a little slower with Windows Defender!


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## ruggb (Dec 21, 2008)

Just a thought - but have you unplugged everything you don't need from the system. I had an issue with a USB device. It took a long time for windowz to decide it wasn't going to hear from it during boot. In fact the problem could be a USB driver on the MB. U might be able to go into bios setup and disable all USB on boot to see if that helps


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## brizboy (Jan 27, 2011)

Had slow startup on my computer. Found the following info page and was able to detect and fix the problem.

Use Windows 7 Event Viewer to track down issues that cause slower boot times - TechRepublic

Very easy to follow instructions on how to create custom view in event viewer that filters for boot degredation items that slow down boot times. Was able to discover the two programs that were causing the problems.

If you don't have time to read or the instructions seem complicated copy and paste the following into notepad and save with .xml extension and then import it as a custom view in event viewer


```
<ViewerConfig><QueryConfig><QueryParams><Simple><BySource>False</BySource><Channel>Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Performance/Operational</Channel><Level>1,2,3,4,0,5</Level><RelativeTimeInfo>0</RelativeTimeInfo><EventId>101-110</EventId></Simple></QueryParams><QueryNode><Name LanguageNeutralValue="Boot Degradation">Boot Degradation</Name><SortConfig Asc="0"><Column Name="Date and Time" Type="System.DateTime" Path="Event/System/TimeCreated/@SystemTime" Visible="">218</Column></SortConfig><QueryList><Query Id="0" Path="Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Performance/Operational"><Select Path="Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Performance/Operational">*[System[(Level=1  or Level=2 or Level=3 or Level=4 or Level=0 or Level=5) and ( (EventID >= 101 and EventID <= 110) )]]</Select></Query></QueryList></QueryNode></QueryConfig><ResultsConfig><Columns><Column
Name="Level" Type="System.String" Path="Event/System/Level" Visible="">168</Column><Column Name="Keywords" Type="System.String" Path="Event/System/Keywords">70</Column><Column Name="Date and Time" Type="System.DateTime" Path="Event/System/TimeCreated/@SystemTime" Visible="">218</Column><Column Name="Source" Type="System.String" Path="Event/System/Provider/@Name" Visible="">128</Column><Column Name="Event ID" Type="System.UInt32" Path="Event/System/EventID" Visible="">128</Column><Column Name="Task Category" Type="System.String" Path="Event/System/Task" Visible="">132</Column><Column Name="User" Type="System.String" Path="Event/System/Security/@UserID">50</Column><Column Name="Operational Code" Type="System.String" Path="Event/System/Opcode">110</Column><Column Name="Log" Type="System.String"
Path="Event/System/Channel">80</Column><Column Name="Computer" Type="System.String" Path="Event/System/Computer">170</Column><Column Name="Process ID" Type="System.UInt32" Path="Event/System/Execution/@ProcessID">70</Column><Column Name="Thread ID" Type="System.UInt32" Path="Event/System/Execution/@ThreadID">70</Column><Column Name="Processor ID" Type="System.UInt32" Path="Event/System/Execution/@ProcessorID">90</Column><Column Name="Session ID" Type="System.UInt32" Path="Event/System/Execution/@SessionID">70</Column><Column Name="Kernel Time" Type="System.UInt32" Path="Event/System/Execution/@KernelTime">80</Column><Column Name="User Time" Type="System.UInt32" Path="Event/System/Execution/@UserTime">70</Column><Column Name="Processor Time" Type="System.UInt32" Path="Event/System/Execution/@ProcessorTime">100</Column><Column
Name="Correlation Id" Type="System.Guid" Path="Event/System/Correlation/@ActivityID">85</Column><Column Name="Relative Correlation Id" Type="System.Guid" Path="Event/System/Correlation/@RelatedActivityID">140</Column><Column Name="Event Source Name" Type="System.String" Path="Event/System/Provider/@EventSourceName">140</Column></Columns></ResultsConfig></ViewerConfig>
```
This will show programs or services that slow down boot. You can then google the problem or go to software manufacturer forums for a solution.

Save as a custom view in event viewer. Then any time in the future you find a slow down all you have to do is run event viewer and the custom view.

Cheers


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