How To Fix Windows 10 Slow Boot

A new Windows 10 laptop will boot in a few seconds, but if it's seen a lot of updates and frequent use, then it will get slower over time. It can be frustrating to wait long for a boot or restart. There are many ways to fix the Windows 10 slow-boot issue, but the following methods will give you most successful results in speeding up the startup and restart.

Turn Off Fast Startup

There is a built-in feature called "Turn on fast startup," which is supposed to improve the Windows 10 slow-boot issue. However, frequent experience suggests it does the complete opposite and that your system may be better off without this setting. To access it, launch "Power & sleep settings" from the Start menu and go to "Additional power settings." Then go to "Choose what the Power buttons do," which may lead to the following screen.

If you have turned hibernation off from the Start menu, you will need to relaunch the hibernate button in Administrator mode.

After that, go to "change settings that are currently unavailable" and turn off the fast startup option. In most cases, you should notice an immediate improvement in boot and restart times. If this setting was already set by you with no improvement in sight, move to the next step.

Disable Linux Subsystem for Windows

Many Windows users at some point may have activated the Windows subsystem for Linux. If you don't need it, then it's best to disable this setting, as it can be a major resource hog. In fact, uninstalling this feature also consumes a lot of time. Go to the following menu option from Start.

Uncheck the box "Windows subsystem for Linux," which will consume some time to implement the changes.

Applying the changes will take a little time, so we have to be patient.

Once the requested changes are done, you need to reboot your PC to finish installing the requested changes. This restart will also take some time.

Windows Slowboot Features Request Completed

Use Startup Repair

Go to the Advanced startup options in the Start menu and select "Troubleshoot" when the blue screen appears. Ignore the Reset Option, which will lead to a number of advanced options. Doing a Startup Repair fixes problems that prevents Windows 10 from loading properly. The tool will diagnose the main issues and fix the slow restart or boot time.

Optimize System Configuration Settings

Go to the Start menu where you can access "msconfig.exe," Windows 10's system configuration app. Run it as an administrator.

Does your Windows PC consume a lot of time before displaying the login screen? You can reduce it by going to "Boot" and lowering the timeout value from default 30 seconds to around 10 seconds or even five seconds.

In the "services menu," you will see all the services running on the Windows system. The "hide all Microsoft services" option is disabled by default. This has to be enabled so that you can minimize the impact of non-Microsoft services on your system.

Windows Slowboot Sysconfig Select All Services

The following shows a few Google programs that are consuming valuable resources in the system memory. Click "disable all" to safely deactivate these programs.

From the Startup menu, you can access the Task manager, which can also be enabled from the Taskbar properties.

Windows Slowboot Sysconfig Tab Taskmanager

Go to the Startup tab and disable any unnecessary programs that are affecting the startup of the Windows 10 device.

Windows Slowboot Startup Disable Programss

Affecting all these changes will take awhile, and you will be alerted to a system configuration restart.

Reduce Virtual Memory to Recommended Values

In some cases, reducing the virtual memory in paging can improve the bootup time. It can be accessed from the "adjust the appearance and performance of Windows" menu.

Go to the Advanced tab, where it says "Adjust for best performance of," Background services. Change the virtual memory, as well.

Windows Slowboot Adjust Advanced Settings

If your currently allocated virtual memory is much higher than recommended, then it can slow down a reboot. Optimize these values to the recommended figures.

Windowsslowboot Adjust Performance Pagingfiles

Update Display Drivers

Sometimes outdated display drivers can cause issues due to a long-response time in boots and restarts. Use Win + X to select "Device Manager."

Go to "Display adapters" and select "update drivers."

Select "search automatically for updated driver software" if you don't have driver software.

You may see a "best driver is already installed" message if the drivers are the latest ones. Otherwise, a new driver will be imported and adjusted, which can lead to faster boot-ups and reboots.

Windows Slowboot Searching Online Drivers

Reduce Space Due to Software Distribution Properties

Go to the Windows folder on your PC where you can find the subfolder: "Software Distribution Properties." This deals with cache files which accumulate due to many legacy updates. These cache files can be drastically deleted almost to zero.

Windows Slowboot Software Distribution Properties

Recycling the cache files in Software Distribution Properties is a neat trick which will prevent them from affecting your PC restart time.

Windows Slowboot Software Redistribution Files Removed

Ensure PC Health through Virus Scan and Check Disk

As a final checklist item, ensure that your PC has "Virus & threat protection" enabled. Malware-infected PCs are always slower to boot. You can access this from "Windows Security" and scan the entire PC for potential threats.

Likewise, you can use a Chkdsk utility to ensure the system disks are in good health.

After fixing all the changes and verifying the integrity of your files, folders, and system, you can do a fresh restart. You can check any improvement in load time from the Task Manager which gives "last BIOS time."

The above methods should fix any Windows 10 slow boot and restart issues. While these tips will not help you restore an old laptop to mint condition, you can drastically reduce the current time to a desired level within a few seconds.

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Sayak Boral

Sayak Boral is a technology writer with over eleven years of experience working in different industries including semiconductors, IoT, enterprise IT, telecommunications OSS/BSS, and network security. He has been writing for MakeTechEasier on a wide range of technical topics including Windows, Android, Internet, Hardware Guides, Browsers, Software Tools, and Product Reviews.