How to Speed up the Startup and Shutdown Process of Windows 10

The truth is that there are many and different causes that can make our computer slow when turning it off or on. In each case they may be one or the other, we may not even know them, so we are going to show a series of recommendations to follow to try to speed up both processes.

All ways to speed up Windows 10 startup

Check if we have viruses or malware

Sometimes it is possible that the computer starts to slow down because we have been infected with a virus or malware that takes advantage of the system startup to do its tasks. This will therefore slow down the process, therefore, it is advisable to do a good scan of our PC to clean up any threats lodged on the computer and causing it to boot up very slowly.

Windows 10 Quick Start

The Microsoft operating system has a special function that allows us to speed up the system startup. We refer to Windows 10 Quick Start, an option still available in Control Panel and that we can easily activate in the following way:

• We open the Control Panel.
• We select the Hardware and Sound option .
• Next we go into Power Options.
• We click on Choose Start / Stop Button Behavior .
• On the next screen we select the Activate quick start option .
• We save the changes.

If the option cannot be activated or deactivated, we will click on “Change the currently unavailable configuration”.

Disable system startup programs

Another recommendation to try to speed up Windows 10 startup is to disable programs that start with system startup. For it:

• We open the Task Manager .
• We select the start tab.
• We look for those programs that we do not need to run at system startup.
• We mark each one of them and clicking with the right mouse button click on Disable .

Prevent applications from running in the background

Running applications in the background can affect system load. Therefore, it does not hurt to prevent this from happening to check if our team starts faster this way. For it:

• We open the system configuration page.
• We select the Privacy option.
• Now we click on the Background Applications option .
• There we will have to unmark all the applications that appear to us one by one so that they do not run in the background in the system or slide the switch that allows all of them to run in the background.

Avoid lock screen when starting Windows 10

An adjustment or configuration that can allow us to speed up the startup of Windows 10 is to avoid going through the lock screen every time we start the PC. To do this, all we have to do is open the User Accounts window and modify this option:

• We open a Run window, Win + R.
• We write netplwiz and press OK or Enter.
• We select the user for whom we do not have to go through the lock screen when starting the computer from the list of users.
• We uncheck the box Users must enter their name and password to use the equipment.
• We apply so that the changes are saved.

Change the hard drive for an SSD

Although all the options mentioned are at the software level, the truth is that if we are still using a hard drive on our computer, an improvement at the hardware level can make our PC boot much faster. So swapping out our mechanical HD for a solid state drive, SSD, will make Windows 10 startup speed up considerably.

Turn off the delay time of programs start

It is a simple trick with which we can also speed up the system startup process. In this way, we will be able to give time for the system to start up and then start programs. For it:

• We open a command prompt window.
• Type regedit and hit Enter.
• Once inside the Windows 10 registry we go to the path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerSerialize.
• If for any case that path does not exist, then we would have to go to this other one, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorer
• We create a New> Key and call it Serialize .
• Inside this key we create a New> DWORD (32 bit) Value called StartupDelayInMSec and make sure its value is 0 .
• We close the registry window and restart the PC for the changes to take effect.

Draw on third-party tools

Of course we can also take advantage of some of the third-party applications that offer us the possibility of trying to speed up the startup of Windows 10 in a more simple and automatic way. Among the most popular and used we find Glarysoft Startup Manager, Argente Autorun, Starter or Autorun Organizer.

Glarysoft Startup Manager is responsible for measuring the time it takes for the computer to start along with what it takes to load the startup processes or applications. In this way we can disable any of these applications and services that are hindering the start or delay its execution. For its part, Argente Autorun allows you to see startup programs, scheduled tasks and services. It offers a very simple way to deactivate those that we do not want to start or delay them.

Starter is a more advanced tool and offers us more information about the programs that are launched, although in the end it offers us practically the same options as the rest. Finally, Autorun Organizer is capable of applying a delay to applications that run at startup. For example, delaying the loading of some very heavy or unnecessary applications, so that the other applications open earlier without problems.

How to speed up shutdown in Windows 10

Close open applications

Something that can make Windows 10 shutdown slower are the applications that we have open on the desktop at the time of proceeding with the computer shutdown. Therefore, a simple recommendation is to close all the programs that we have open on the desktop before proceeding with the PC shutdown. In this way, we will avoid that the system itself has to end up with those running processes, as long as it is possible, since in some cases we may have to do it manually yes or yes.

Make the computer turn off faster

There is a small trick that can help us to shutdown the system as quickly as possible, creating a shortcut that contains the command that we want to execute. This will make the computer turn off quickly, without waiting. For it:

• We right click on a free area of the desktop and select the New> shortcut option.
• We add the Shutdown command :% windir% System32 shutdown.exe / s / t 0.
• We give a name to the shortcut, for example Turn off Equipment.
• From now on, just double-click on the icon of the access that we have just created for the device to turn off quickly.

Making a small change to the registry

A small change in the Windows 10 registry can make shutting down the computer itself force the closing of all open applications on the desktop to make the process as fast as possible. This is what we should do:

• We open a Run window, Win + R.
• We write regedit and press OK or Enter.
• We navigate to the route HKEY_USERS.DEFAULTControl PanelDesktop
• We create a New> String Value with the name AutoEndTask and value 1.

We restart the computer so that the changes are saved and from that moment, when we go to turn off the computer, the system itself will be in charge of forcing the closure of all open applications.

There is another change we can make at the system registry level that allows us to force Windows to shutdown faster. In this case:

• We open a Run window, Win + R.
• We write regedit and press OK or Enter.
• We navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControl path .
• We look for the string value with the name WaitToKillServiceTimeout .
• We double click on it to edit it. This value represents the milliseconds that the system will wait to proceed with its shutdown. We must reduce it to the maximum depending on the capabilities of our team.
• We accept and restart the computer so that the changes are saved.