Let’s get straight to the point. This Windows XP registry tweak will make your system boot much faster. How much?
I can not say exactly how much faster, since it all depends on your computer specifications (processor, RAM, hard-drive and stuff like that…), but from my experience, this tweak decreased the time to boot-up for about 9-10 seconds.
Now you see how great this registry tweak is and it will get even better when you see how simple it is to apply. I will do my best to show you step-by-step and make it plain simple and of course with screenshots included.
How to make Windows XP start faster:
1. Click on “Start” on the taskbar.
2. Click “Run” located in the start menu.
3. Then in the “Run” panel, type: “regedit” without the quotation marks. (that will open up the Windows registry editor)
4. Then click on “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE” and expand it.
5. Then click on “SYSTEM” and expand it.
6. Then scroll down, and expand “CurrentControlSet”.
7. Under that, expand “Control”.
8. Then, under that one, locate and click on “ContentIndex”. (so when you click on it, it needs to be highlighted and it’s options need to show up in the right panel of Windows XP Registry Editor)
So to sum up, here’s where you need to navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ ContentIndex
Let’s continue… You have just 6 more steps until the finish line!
9. When you have clicked on “ContentIndex” and it is highlighted and you see the options and parameters on the right side of the panel… Among those, you need to scroll all the way to the bottom and find the Registry key named “StartupDelay”.
10. Double-click on it and a new window panel will pop-up.
12. The new window has a field to enter value (and a default value entered already). But before you change the value, you need to change the base from Hexadecimal to Decimal. Take a look at the screenshot below to see what I am talking about:
Now when you change it to Decimal, it displays a different value (480000 instead of 75300).
13. So now, all you need to do is change the value from “480000” to “40000” (forty thousand)
Many people ask me if they can change it to an even smaller value than 40000, but I would not recommend doing that. I tested it and it doesn’t work. I did not feel any difference in boot-up time when I change it to value less than 40000 (and no, you can’t put 0 either).
14. After you’ve completed all the steps above, click “OK” and close the Registry Editor.
And one just one little thing you need to do to finish all this registry tweaking…
15. Restart your computer.
Now you can notice big difference in time that your system takes to boot-up. Mine was faster for 10 seconds than usual. How much faster does your Windows XP boot now? Share in the comments below!
March 8, 2010
its work!!!! thx again dennice…..
March 8, 2010
You’re always welcome.
March 17, 2010
wow!great! thank you very much! prefetch and msconfig did not work for me.thank you again for this ^^
January 12, 2012
Thank you.
January 12, 2012
Hey! My computer is running so Fast since this registry change!
thanks a lot!
January 29, 2012
You’re welcome! ;)
March 4, 2012
hi tried you’re tweak but i have a ramdisk installed which slows the reboot as it has to clear before closing, i timed reboot from shut down till main screen’ 1min 3 Seconds
i might try it again after uninstalling the ramdisk! just to see if it does make it faster.
March 8, 2012
Yes, I think that may be the reason why it didn’t quite work for you. This works otherwise, because I have tested it.
March 8, 2012
Hi Dennis
i uninstalled the ramdisk and timed the reboot yes it did speed it up! went from 1minute 3 seconds to 49 seconds
that’s from a cold boot,about the same from warm boot’
here is my system info. thanks.
………………………………………………………………………………
OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name PHILIPS
System Manufacturer System manufacturer
System Model System Product Name
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 6 GenuineIntel ~2133 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 0901, 03/07/2007
SMBIOS Version 2.4
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United Kingdom
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = “5.1.2600.5512 (xpsp.080413-2111)”
User Name PHILIPS\philip
Time Zone GMT Standard Time
Total Physical Memory 4,096.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 323.50 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 5.59 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
April 27, 2012
Just keep this great article as it works well and may solves problems of many computer users. I learnt the same 6years back but we cannot remember all reg. tweaks in mind we need to refer internet and got here from search. Thanks.