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 Post subject: Re: Boot Winstep applications faster?
PostPosted: Wed Jun 22, 2016 6:57 am 
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I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but will enabling Fast Boot work with a third-party Startup Manager? As I mentioned earlier, I use the Startup Manager in the program Wise Care 365.


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 Post subject: Re: Boot Winstep applications faster?
PostPosted: Wed Jun 22, 2016 12:32 pm 
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I don't see why not, but you'll have to give it a try to find out for sure.

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 Post subject: Re: Boot Winstep applications faster?
PostPosted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 5:16 pm 
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Okay, I tried and here's the result. I have 6 external hard drives hooked up. The third-party app Wise Care 365 shows that it takes 90 seconds to boot into Windows.

Before I enabled Fast Boot my boot time was 190 seconds so now my boot time is at least twice as fast.

However, there is one issue. I'm not sure if it's an issue only with my system, but the last 2 out of the 3 times I restarted my PC to test the boot time, the weather module did not update. I saw it trying-it was flashing for several minutes but it couldn't do it.

In other words, everything was blank. I had to right-click on it > Check Weather.


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 Post subject: Re: Boot Winstep applications faster?
PostPosted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 8:13 pm 
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Windy wrote:
However, there is one issue. I'm not sure if it's an issue only with my system, but the last 2 out of the 3 times I restarted my PC to test the boot time, the weather module did not update. I saw it trying-it was flashing for several minutes but it couldn't do it.


Could be your Internet connection depends on something that hasn't started yet.

A failed connection will time out after 30 seconds or so, and will be automatically retried a few minutes later.

Windy wrote:
In other words, everything was blank. I had to right-click on it > Check Weather.


That means the automatic retry would eventually succeed too.

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 Post subject: Re: Boot Winstep applications faster?
PostPosted: Sun Jun 26, 2016 10:53 am 
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Okay, here's round two. I later tested it several times and unfortunately the boot times again increased to 190 seconds. The WorkShelf boot time was 25 seconds.

I then disabled WorkShelf via Wise Care 365 (which also disabled NextSTART) and restarted the PC. The boot time dropped to 89 seconds. As you will see in the following screenshot something really odd after I re-enabled it. It shows both WorkShelf and NextSTART enabled and disabled. :? Notice the boot time.

Attachment:
Winstep Startup.jpg
Winstep Startup.jpg [ 36.13 KiB | Viewed 18636 times ]


I restarted it again and the boot time was 92 seconds. Again you see how they are both enabled and disabled. This is consistent throughout.

Attachment:
Winstep Startup 2a.jpg
Winstep Startup 2a.jpg [ 7.84 KiB | Viewed 18636 times ]

Attachment:
Winstep Startup 2b.jpg
Winstep Startup 2b.jpg [ 10.06 KiB | Viewed 18636 times ]


Last edited by Windy on Sun Jun 26, 2016 11:18 am, edited 2 times in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Boot Winstep applications faster?
PostPosted: Sun Jun 26, 2016 11:04 am 
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On the 3rd try I enabled Screen Capturer and the boot time increased to 104 seconds. I also disabled CCleaner Monitoring but it didn't disable.

Attachment:
Winstep Startup 3.jpg
Winstep Startup 3.jpg [ 36.34 KiB | Viewed 18636 times ]


I tried a 4th time. This time I disabled CCleaner Monitoring by using CCleaner and it worked. The boot time decreased to 90 seconds.

Attachment:
Winstep Startup 4.jpg
Winstep Startup 4.jpg [ 42.61 KiB | Viewed 18636 times ]


As you can see, there are several fluctuations in the boot times of WorkShelf. Except for the first screenshot, NextSTART is consistent.

What is your take on all of this? Why did the boot time increase so much but after I disabled WorkShelf and re-enabled it the boot times went down considerably?

P.S. Just to avoid confusion, I cropped all of the screenshots so none of them shows all of the programs I have set to run at startup.

P.P.S. Jorge, notice your software rating! :)


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 Post subject: Re: Boot Winstep applications faster?
PostPosted: Thu Mar 30, 2017 1:11 pm 
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Is FastBoot available when using NextStart alone ?

Just got a new motherboard so took advantage and decided to reinstall Windows from new.

I`m sure there used to be a secondary entry in one of the Run fields - but I don`t see it now.

(FastBoot is obviously enabled on the NextStart general preferences page)


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 Post subject: Re: Boot Winstep applications faster?
PostPosted: Thu Mar 30, 2017 4:05 pm 
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JuJu wrote:
Is FastBoot available when using NextStart alone ?


In theory, yes.

Fastboot works by launching 'winstep.exe' instead of the applications individually, winstep.exe then launching the applications. This is because some work needs to be done at startup to prevent them from running with elevated privileges.

Winstep.exe has code to detect when either NextSTART or WorkShelf are NOT set to auto-run, but the truth is that I don't think I ever really tested it.

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 Post subject: Re: Boot Winstep applications faster?
PostPosted: Thu Mar 30, 2017 7:46 pm 
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OK thanks...

just to clarify - should I therefore be seeing a "Run" entry for winstep.exe as well as nextstart.exe ?

I didn`t just imagine seeing one previously did I ?

(I`m almost convinced there were always 2 Winstep related "Run" entries but I`m not seeing it now which has thrown me for a loop)

*** I`m not having any problems with the loading speed of NextStart, it takes just a second or two but the question is more about curiosity and completeness over anything else.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OK, I just had a lightbulb moment, so put an old image back on and checked the reg entries...

found:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce]
"Winstep SpeedLaunch"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Winstep\\winstep.exe /speedlaunch"

So I`m glad I didn`t just imagine it :wink:

I put it back in the new windows install manually.
It didn`t appear to make much difference (Win7) so maybe it`s not necessary with NextStart alone.


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 Post subject: Re: Boot Winstep applications faster?
PostPosted: Thu Mar 30, 2017 8:13 pm 
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The Fastboot option uses a Windows mechanism that is NOT intended for launching applications at startup. That's why it is disabled by default - if every application did the same *and* enabled it by default, we would soon be back to square one. So try to keep quiet about it. :wink:

Anyway, I had to come up with Fastboot because Microsoft got to the point where it was *deliberately* delaying the startup up 3rd party applications by 10 seconds or more to make Windows *appear* to boot faster (i.e.; make yourself look good by making everyone else look bad. Sigh).

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 Post subject: Re: Boot Winstep applications faster?
PostPosted: Mon Apr 03, 2017 8:24 pm 
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I havent noticed a difference with fast boot on my windows 7 but that could be bc of the way i use winstep, ie mayn docks/subdoks and modules (if you rember, my backup file is 257 kb which you said was rather large for a wbk file)


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 Post subject: Re: Boot Winstep applications faster?
PostPosted: Tue Apr 04, 2017 8:24 am 
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seeker wrote:
I havent noticed a difference with fast boot on my windows 7 but that could be bc of the way i use winstep, ie mayn docks/subdoks and modules (if you rember, my backup file is 257 kb which you said was rather large for a wbk file)


Could be. The difference is normally quite large, but it's especially noticeable on Windows 10 systems because Windows 10 actually DELAYS the startup of 3rd party applications by up to 10 seconds AFTER the desktop becoming visible.

I remember when I first witness the fast boot setting in action on my Windows 7 system, and even I was shocked at how much difference it made - I was expecting *some* difference but not such a *large* difference. Basically the second you were able to see your desktop (Windows taskbar, desktop icons, etc...) the dock would already be there waiting for you too.

Of course, for the dock and other elements to be visible, the application must first load its settings from disk into memory. And if those settings are 257 Kb in size... well... that will take some time.

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