When looking to speed up laptop performance, there are two places which you should be looking into. The first place is where you can improve startup speed, the other should help you speed up shutdown time.

Improve Boot Up Speed

In this area, you have plenty of work to do. You can change the settings in the Windows registry, remove some of the files to free up some disk space, disable some of the autostart tasks in the startup menu or prevent the background programs from running. The last two will most effectively help you with speeding up your laptop’s performance though.

The problem here is that there is no one place where you can look to stop tasks, programs and applications from automatically launching themselves during startup. You can work at the Startup folder to disable some files, in the Windows registry to change some of its settings, or in other areas in your laptop. With a little perseverance, you will be able to boost your laptop’s speed one data at a time.

Begin with deleting some files from the startup menu. You can do this by going to the Windows Configuration Utility. From there, remove some of the autostart programs which are initialed along with the main programs during boot up. At this juncture, you are only deleting the shortcuts for the programs, but not necessarily the entire programs themselves. If you truly want to take the programs out of your laptop’s system, you can go to their different locations in the control panel or in the Add/Remove Program tool to fully delete them.

If you don’t want to interfere with this process, you can go for the option of bypassing the automatic loading of the autostart files. Stop your laptop from loading these files by pressing Shift key during boot up. this will prevent the autostart programs from loading up during this particular occasion.

The next thing you have to do is to modify the settings of the Scheduled Tasks. Go to C:WindowsTasks and change its settings.

Improve Shutdown Speed

It isn’t just the boot up speed which you can improve, you can work on the shutdown time as well. Unlike the first area, this one requires some familiarity with the technicality of working with computers.

Use the ‘regedit’ command to access the Windows Registry Editor. This will pop-up a new window which is divided in two separate panes. On to your left, you will see folders with five different names. On your right, are the keys to the folders.

Improving the shutdown speed of your laptop requires you to focus on two of the five folders. Start by expanding the HKEY_CURRENT_USER >> Control Panel >> Desktop and look for the ‘WaitToKillAppTimeout‘ on your right. Double click this key to get to the pop–up window. Alter the value in the box to anywhere from 1000 to 5000 milliseconds.

Next, navigate the folder HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and go to SYSTEM, CurrentControlSet, then Control. Look for the ‘WaitToKillServiceTimeout’ key to your right. Alter the value in the box that will appear to 5000 – 1000 milliseconds, depending on your speed preference.

Restart your computer and see what difference these make. The steps mentioned above are aimed at aiding you speed up laptop performance.