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In the Forums... |
Posted: October 23, 2000 Written By: Keith "Farrel" McClellan Startup Files To edit any of these files, open them in notepad by choosing Start, Run, notepad C:\msdos.sys (or the appropriate name for the file) There are three major startup files for Win9x/Me - msdos.sys, autoexec.bat, and config.sys. These three files contain most of the booting information prior to Windows loading (more on that later). The first file that we are going to deal with is the msdos.sys file. Now, because I cover how to tweak out this boot file in at least one other guide here at Tweak3D, I'm just going to cover it briefly. There are a few very important lines that should be added to the file, mainly: Logo=0, DrvSpace=0, DblSpace=0, and DisableLog=1 (each on their own line). The logo line disables the Windows startup screen, the Drvspace and Dblspace lines disable archaic hard drive compression that isn't usable under FAT32 anyway, and DisableLog turns off the cryptic and unhelpful startup log. All of these things, combined, not only speed up boot time, but they also decrease system overhead - speeding up the computer overall. The config.sys and autoexec.bat files, depending on the version of Windows you are using, have differing importances. If you are using WinMe, you will probably want to ignore these tweaks for the time being and check out the specific information available in our WinMe tweak guides (some of which haven't been written at the time of this writing). In the config.sys file, remove any references to CD-ROM drivers (MSCDEX.exe, etc) by remarking it out (put REM in front of the command). This way you aren't deleting it if it causes a problem, but it isn't being loaded into memory. Do the same with any extra programs within the autoexec.bat file. There are other tweaks that you can do to these files, but they don't increase the boot speed of the computer. System Configuration Utility I'm very briefly going to go over some startup speed enhancements using the system configuration utility. Start it up (Start, Run, msconfig (hit enter)) and go directly to the "startup" tab (how astonishing). Then go through it and remove anything with the following criteria: - If there are two or more listings of the same setting, disable all but one of them. - If you know what the program is that the setting enables/disables, and you no longer want or need it, disable it. That should about cover that for now. I know, it's short, but I don't want you to disable anything you might want enabled (at least not yet). Conclusion Hopefully, this brief guide on tuning your boot speed will help you get to a point where the time it takes to turn on your computer wouldn't be better used roasting an entire turkey - if you can still roast an entire turkey in the time it takes your computer to load up, e-mail me and I will personally help you out over the phone Click here for a printer friendly version. |
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