It can be counter-productive to have to endure a computer which slowly boots up or takes forever to shut down. This article highlights some ways to speed up Windows PC boot/shutdown performance.
To speed up Windows PC boot times, you need to zero in on which applications Windows is starting as it boots up. Windows has its own utility, the System Config tool, which has a startup tab listing the programs that are run at startup, with options to disable these. This program centralize all the startup programs so is one of the easier ways to pick and choose which programs should and shouldn’t be run.
Once you run the tool (start > run > enter msconfig) you should only disable programs you are familiar with and happy to not have starting. For those you leave enabled, check these for program updates and make sure you have the latest optimized version installed. If you have a lot of third-party programs installed then an online PC repair can check/update all applications in one single sweep.
To speed up Windows PC shutdown performance you need to consider how each of the running services/programs are releasing their resources and saving their data to disk. For operating system files and hardware (i.e. device drivers) all their programs include close functions which are improved upon with each program release. The easiest way to improve this is to keep getting updates from Windows on a regular basis.
Any third-party programs running in the foreground will also need to release resources before shutdown. These can be manually closed if desired and checked for patch updates to make sure their close down scripts are current/optimized.
Finally, adding more RAM memory will speed up Windows PC performance generally, but will also show huge gains in how the computer launches and closes. If you have less than 1MB of RAM then strongly consider getting some extra modules.