I cut my Windows boot time without spending a dime

Some of the best ways to cut boot time on Windows may require a financial commitment, such as increasing your RAM, upgrading to a solid-state drive (SSD), or replacing the motherboard. These are all very effective options. However, not everyone has the money to upgrade their hardware whenever they please.

I certainly didn’t want to commit financially to hardware, so I found some of the coolest and most efficient ways to reduce my computer’s boot time without spending a dime. Now, my computer goes from power-on to a ready desktop in a few seconds, and I don’t have as many delays before I resume work.

Strip startup bloat

Hunt hidden autostarters with Autoruns (and Task Manager)

When you power on your computer, Windows assigns resources to all programs and services that launch automatically. These resources may be CPU time, RAM, and disk I/O (input/output from the hard drive or SSD). The more of these automatic tasks there are, the more resources they consume, and the longer it takes for the computer to boot or become ready to use. But the question here is, what are these tasks?

These startup tasks may include cloud sync services (OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud), messaging apps (Discord, Teams, Zoom), and game/utility preloaders.

On Windows, there are two free tools you can use to fix this. The first is the Task Manager.

1. Open it by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc on the keyboard.
2. Click the Startup apps tab and sort the list by Startup impact.
3. Select a startup app and click Disable.

The second tool is Sysinternals Autoruns. This tool will show apps that don’t appear in the Task Manager. These apps use alternative system entry points, such as RunOnce, scheduled tasks, or service entries, to load when you start the computer.

1. First, download Autoruns.
2. Extract the ZIP file, and run Autoruns64.exe as an administrator.
3. Give it a second to populate, then click the Logon tab. You’ll see everything that starts at boot.
4. Uncheck any names you recognize but don’t need.

Tune services and scheduled tasks

Prune SysMain, background apps, and misbehaving scheduled tasks

There are a number of Windows services and scheduled tasks that you can disable. Windows 11 runs many services by default, and some of these can add seconds to boot time. Be careful—most services are essential for stability. Only disable those you’ve confirmed are non-critical for your system and workflow.

To check for heavy services:

1. Press Win + R, type services.msc, and hit Enter.
2. Once the app opens, sort by the Startup type column and look through the list of Automatic services.

One service you should disable is SysMain. This was formerly called Superfetch, and the service preloads apps into memory to make them launch faster. It can be useful on older HDDs, but if you use an SSD, the performance benefit is often negligible, and disabling it can sometimes slightly reduce background resource usage. To disable SysMain

1. Right-click SysMain, then select Properties.
2. Set Startup type to Manual, then click Stop.

You can perform this same step for any other service that may be adding to boot time.

Several software programs typically add background update tasks, and many of these start automatically when you boot. To disable these:

1. Press Win + R, type taskschd.msc, and hit Enter to open Task Scheduler.
2. Double-click Task Scheduler on the left pane, then in the middle pane, search for any tasks associated with apps on your computer. You should check for tasks with Startup as triggers.
3. Right-click the task, then select Disable.

Boot times can also be affected by BIOS/UEFI settings. Updating firmware and optimizing boot order or Fast Boot options can further improve startup speed.

Make your drive cooperate

Update SSD firmware and avoid a nearly-full drive

Even after startup bloat and unnecessary services have been disabled or removed, my computer doesn’t always boot faster. This may be because my storage drive is not performing optimally. The SSD is often the most significant factor determining system boot time, so your next step should be to optimize it, which you can often do for free.

Your SSD may receive occasional firmware updates, just like BIOS or GPU firmware. You should make sure you’re running the latest firmware. You’ll have to visit the individual manufacturer’s support page and download their management tool. Check for firmware updates in the tool and apply any available ones.

However, another trigger could be an almost-full SSD. SSDs have to manage wear-leveling and caching. But when your SSD is near full, it will slow down because it cannot find enough free blocks to write data. Ideally, you should keep at least 10–15% of the drive free. A vendor tool like Samsung Magician has an over-provisioning feature that you should enable to reserve a certain portion of the drive for maintenance, but nearly every SSD manufacturer has similar software.

However, if you do not have a vendor tool, you can manually create a small unallocated space at the end of your SSD. 10% is ideal.

1. Right-click on the Start menu and select Disk Management.
2. If your SSD is your main drive, i.e., is where Windows is located, it’ll typically be labeled Disk 0. This is the default drive position for your main drive. However, if your SSD is not your main drive or you have a different configuration, you’ll need to do a little sleuthing to figure it out.
   • Typically, finding where your C: drive is located will help you determine if you’re using your boot drive. In Disk Management, you can see the drive partition locations in the lower part of the screen.
   • If you have multiple drives installed, right-click the disk number and select Properties. The drive name will display in the General tab. For example, mine displays the rather cryptic “wdc pc sn730 sdbpnty-512g-1027,” but a quick internet search shows me that this is a Western Digital PC SN730 NVMe SSD.
3. Right-click a partition, then choose Shrink Volume.
4. Enter the amount of space you want to shrink and hit Shrink. You’ll have to input the shrink value in megabytes, not gigabytes. So, a 10GB shrink is input as 10000.

Once the space is clawed back, leave it unallocated.

Understand and use Fast Startup

Know the tradeoffs—don’t treat Fast Startup as a boot time fix

Windows has a Fast Startup feature that hibernates the kernel rather than shuts it down completely. This feature typically lets your computer boot faster. However, if a slow driver is saved in the hibernated kernel state, it will be reloaded at each boot and slow startup. On dual-boot systems, it may also interfere with USB devices and may prevent important system updates from being fully applied.

Resetting Fast Startup can fix slow boot times. Navigate to Control Panel > Power Options > Choose what the power buttons do, and uncheck Turn on fast startup. Perform a full restart (which forces a full kernel shutdown), then return to the same settings and check the Turn on fast startup option. This process will clear the faulty kernel cache, but if boot times are still slow, leave Fast Startup disabled for system stability.

Help Windows boot optimally

While a slow boot may be a real problem, you don’t need to break the bank to fix it. A few tweaks here and there will generally speed up the boot process.

Boot speed is usually driven by startup load (programs, services) and storage performance; disabling unneeded items and optimizing your SSD typically helps. Also, avoid Windows 11 settings that could unnecessarily wear down your SSD.