This document discusses troubleshooting poor boot performance in Windows clients. It notes that slow boot times are a top user complaint and IT cost, but are often neglected. The author, Joe Dissmeyer, then outlines various tools that can help identify the root causes, which are usually related to disk I/O issues, group policies, boot scripts, unused software, or old applications and services. The document recommends resources for further information on diagnosing and resolving boot problems.
4. personal observations…
• Slow boot performance is the #1
Complaint
• Is blamed for the need to purchase new
hardware
• Most tolerated problem by everyone
– “This is just the way it is.”
– “Every PC gets slow over time.”
• Most neglected issue by I.T.
5. why boot performance is
important
• Time, Payroll, & Productivity
• I.T. Costs
• Morale
• I.T. Perception, “I.T. Sucks”
8. utilities recap
Microsoft Sysinternals Suite
- Process Monitor (PROCMON)
- Process Explorer (PROCEXP)
- AutoRuns
Windows Assessment and Performance Toolkit
- Windows Performance Recorder
- Windows Performance Analyzer
9. takeaways…
• Disk I/O (This is the top cause!)
• Group Policies and Boot Scripts
– Audit your group policies
– Review logic in all logon scripts
– Boot time scripts = BAD, BAD, BAD
• Junk in deployment image
– Always, always, always triple check
– Clean up default user profile
– Disable or delay Services
• Old apps and services
– Remove unused software (5 different printer drivers?)
– Review old versions of apps, compatibility
10. resources
• Joedissmeyer.com
• Mark Russinovich, Microsoft Technical Fellow (VP)
– Blog articles, “The Case of the….”
– Specifically look for “The Case of the Verrry Slow Logons”
• MSDN Channel 9, TechEd sessions
– “Case of the Unexplained” with Mark Russinovich
– “How many coffees can you drink while Windows boots?” By
Microsoft IT
• Michael Neihaus MS Deployment Guy
– “Using the Windows Performance Toolkit” article
12. final thought
When you take the approach of restart the app or restart
the operating system or even re-install an operating system
and start from scratch and hope that the problem doesn't
happen again, you haven't learned anything, you don't
know what caused the problem, you don't know how
severe the problem is, or if the problem is going to come
back and bite you again. It is worth spending even just a
few minutes to go try to figure out what's happened. Often
times, that will lead you to a solution.
Mark Russinovich, TechEd 2010 Session "The Case of the
Unexplained, 2010: Troubleshooting with Mark Russinovich"
I want to start this session with some very simple questions. – ask question1. How long does it take for your computer to boot to the desktop? (This includes logging in.)2. How long have you been dealing with the length of time it takes for your computer to boot?Think about it.
The fact of the matter here is that slow boot performance is most common problem you face as an I.T. professional.Point 1 –I can almost guarantee that not a day goes by where at least ONE person will complain about their computer taking forever to boot up.Point 2 –A. Slow boot performance is also the most common reason why someone purchases a new computer, because “It takes 20 minutes for my PC to boot up! It’s slow so I need a new computer.”B. It is also one of the primary reasons why your customers jump ship to another platform, such as Mac. Point 3 –This is the most tolerated problem.Slow boot performance just seems to be common knowledge and that “This is just the way it is”.Now it is a fact that every PC gets slow over time, but do people really look at things and fix slow boot performance? Once a PC gets slow, most people just deal with it.Point 4 –Slow boot performance is the most neglected issue by I.T.When someone complains, we may work with them and do a disk defrag, remove some old applications that they aren’t using any more, and do a few more things to try to help (and yes, they do really help a little bit regarding performance), but it isn’t enough.