Are you suffering from Windows XP slow boot or Windows XP slow startup? This can be a serious annoyance and can rob you blind of your valuable time. There are a number of reasons why a Windows XP computer might startup slowly First let’s look at how the W in dows startup process works and then we'll look at some ways to fix slow startup problems.

Before Windows begins to load, the computer must initialize itself. The process looks something like this:

• When the computer first starts up, the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) loads
• Drivers such as the keyboard are loaded
• Drivers for hard drives are loaded
• The BIOS searches for a Master Boot Record (MBR) and if it finds one, it turns control over to it.

It is only at this point that Windows actually starts to load. It’s important to stress that everything before this point is required to initialize hardware but has nothing to do with Windows and does not contribute to a slow startup problem in Windows.

Once control has been turned over to the MBR, Windows starts to load. You’ll see the tell-tale Windows startup logo and then Windows will:

• Load device drivers
• Initialize the video subsystem
• Start then the network
• Load the Windows logon process -- even if you are not required to enter and user name and password to logon.
• Start system services
• Load startup programs

Some of the reasons for Windows XP Slow Boot and Windows XP Slow Startup problems are:

A bloated or damaged registry

The registry is a database of settings that Windows needs to use hardware, keep track of software, and control how Windows works. As time goes on, programs are uninstalled, hardware is changed, updates are applied, and the registry fills up with leftover bits of information it no longer needs. In a worst case, the registry can become corrupted and the computer will not boot at all.

Corrupted or non-functional drivers

Drivers are the programs that help hardware interact with Windows. Drivers are vital to the system and there are even drivers for the keyboard, mouse, and monitor. Messed up drivers can be a major problem for a PC.

Problem with the network hardware or configuration

This is especially true if the computer is connected to a network and a Windows domain. If the Windows domain controller is not the computer’s preferred DNS server, startup will hang loading the network drivers. This one may involve your network administrator, but the answer is to configure the network to use the correct DNS server. You can use the built-in (and free) Windows ipconfig utitlity to help track this one down.

Misbehaving services

Services are programs that run in the background and they load with Windows. Like any program, services can misbehave and may need to be managed to make the systen run as smoothly as possible. The best bet for managing services is the built-in services.msc managerment interface. Be careful though, some services are vital.

Too many or problematic startup programs

Soem programs insist in loading themselves every time the computer starts. More often than not this is completely unnecessary and having these programs running in the background can lead to slow startup problems. Startup items can sometimes be found in the Start | Programs | Startup folder and can be deleted from there. For more advanced startup control try Sysinternals Autoruns -- it's free! You can also have watch our video that will help you deal with startup programs.

So, that’s a brief overview of why Windows XP might be slow to startup. Your mileage may vary but this should get you looking in the right direction.