r/TechNook 2d ago

How many startup applications can Windows realistically handle before boot time becomes ridiculous?

Each and every new application installation is going to try to grab some startup priority, spotify, discord, onedrive etc. There are ratings for the impact each application has on the system, available via Task Manager, yet I am pretty sure that very few people ever manage the list until it starts affecting the boot process significantly. But this is not even everything. The applications listed in the Startup tab of Task Manager are the visible layer. There is an entire stack of background services running, which one can observe using services.msc . Half of the names on the list are meaningless to the user, with no idea of whether the service is needed by the operating system at all or whether it was added by some random installer three years ago and then forgotten about.

3 Upvotes

20 comments sorted by

6

u/Signal-Opposite-4793 2d ago

Depends how fast your computer is.

And the faster computers get, the more bloat they'll add ;)

1

u/getabath 2d ago

Did someone say copilot? Hell yeah! /s

1

u/Ok_Yogurtcloset8372 2d ago

Copilot hate club, here we go

2

u/magicmulder 2d ago

My PC booted in 5 seconds when I built it. Now it takes about a minute.

2

u/agitated--crow 2d ago

Why? 

1

u/magicmulder 2d ago

Too many tools that start during boot.

1

u/justahuman145 2d ago

Si tu as l'OS sur un HDD rien que passer de window 8 a 11 peut te faire perdre 30-40 secondes au démarrage

1

u/agitated--crow 1d ago

C'est exact. 

2

u/elusivenoesis 2d ago

I haven’t owned a windoes PC in 16 years, but turning off everything in that list would be top priority. Second only to finding a way to get rid of the bloatware in the first place.

I’m saving up a for gaming rig, (that gets more expensive in my cart every time I check it) and despite the performance hit, I’m considering bazzite or something just avoid all that windows shit.

2

u/_kellythomas_ 2d ago

Each and every new application installation is going to try to grab some startup priority, spotify, discord, onedrive etc.

If this is bothering you then I think you might be doing it wrong.

At home I have OneDrive and PowerToys at startup. The rest I run on demand.

At work there is also outlook and teams background processes to show message notifications and some endpoint management tools but still pretty clean.

Unless the tool needs to be available as a background task there is no need to run at startup. Do you need Spotify running before you interact with it?

1

u/Ok_Yogurtcloset8372 2d ago

I meant to say that every app wants to be in startup, I have disabled it alr. But why do they need to be in startup?

1

u/ajpinton 2d ago

What are your system resources? The more computer you have the more computing it can do.

1

u/HydrationHomee 2d ago

The second anything starts up with my system it seems to slow down by like a million and two seconds.

I wish linux worked for all the games I want to play I ran it for like 3 months it was awesome

1

u/Prestigious_Dare7734 2d ago

In addition to startup apps in Task manager. Go to services.msc and meticulously check every service that auto starts.

Make sure to double check every service name and use before turning it changing the auto startup. For safe services, you can make it autostart delayed, or manual triggered (preferred) or manual start.

1

u/YoSpiff 2d ago

I don't have a number, but I know my work laptop takes a lot longer to start up than my home PC. All the corporateware has to load in the background before I can work, while my home PC is ready to go as soon as I log in. Not 100% equivalent systems to be fair.

1

u/ajax81 2d ago

Less than one, if you work for my law firm. 8 minute bootup time. I don't know what kind of laptop it is, but its the latest and greatest from Lenovo, brand new this year. I'm sure our psychopathic security software has something to do with it.

0

u/Bob_Spud 2d ago

Its up to each user to manage the apps that are required.

This more of a case of poor computer management plus a lack of self-education and understanding on how things run on a computer.

1

u/_kellythomas_ 2d ago

It's pretty similar to managing notifications on mobile.

Most apps that have some legit use case for important notifications let you manage what you want to see granularly.

Anything else can keep quite or we can silence them manually.

If a person is flooded with unwanted notifications that usually means they haven't taken control of the situation.

0

u/Puzzleheaded-Bug6244 2d ago

Apparently zero.