[SOLVED] Windows 10 takes over 5 minutes to reach the login screen

desbest

desbest

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Sep 6, 2016
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Windows 10 takes over 5 minutes to reach the login screen
How can I speed it up?
I'm using Windows 10 20H2

I have already done chkdsk, dism and sfc and no errors were found. I've also installed windows updates.
 
Hi, desbest.

Let's check the start-up items. Perhaps they have an impact on the start-up process. Managing start-up items can reduce the start-up time.

1. Right click anywhere on your task bar and choose Task Manager.
2. If you see a window with a More details button, choose More details. Otherwise move on to the step 3 directly.
3. Click on Start up tab and check the columns Status and Start-up impact. See if you don't need any of the enabled items to start with Windows. Especially check items with the indication High. Click on the items you don't need to start with Windows and select Disable.
4. Restart the computer and check if it is still slow at start-up.
5. Report your comments in your next reply.
 
Not really a way to fix the current problem but, if you have an HDD, changing to SSD will bring you a nice change in speed.
 
Just to add two additional diagnostic alternatives:

1. Boot into Safe Mode to see if that's significantly faster. That's often a "quick and dirty" way to try to figure out whether it's something in the usual startup process that's causing lag (and sometimes that's something that was supposed to have been removed by an uninstaller, that somehow got missed, and that Windows keeps trying and trying and trying to start until the "drop dead on tries" limit is reached - and it's invariably way more tries than I'd like).

2. You can also try a clean boot. See: How to Perform a Clean Boot in Windows 10 to Troubleshoot Software Conflicts

While I might try my suggestion #1 before doing what @DR M initially suggested, just as a quick and dirty test, I definitely would do what he proposes after that before you ever even think about doing a Clean Boot process. That's only something you want to get into once you have at least some decent evidence that it might help you find the culprit, and that the culprit could be found that way, first.
 
I've fixed the problem now.There was two parts to it.

Drivers specific to my computer

Firstly, my computer manufacturer, Acer, not only does their website give me outdated drivers on my product page, they also give faulty drivers. If you were to install these faulty drivers, they would fill the computer with junk alongside the current driver that was previously installed at the time of installation. So I went to Windows Settings then Apps then uninstalled the following software, which is strange because drivers shouldn't appear there, only in Device Manager

It was as if drivers had graphical user interfaces and the user could open a window associated with it, even though no such windows existed.

  • Intel Serial IO Driver
  • Realtek Wireless LAN Driver aka Realtek FE/GbE Family Controller
  • Intel Chipset Driver

That cut the startup time from 9 minutes to 7 minutes and 30 seconds. I then restarted my computer to finalise the uninstall of the drivers. On windows even if uninstalling a driver doesn't prompt the user to restart, you should still restart anyway, as traces are often left on the computer until a restart happens. But it was still over 5 minutes to reach the login screen.

Windows Update

Then I was doing some internet surfing on Ten Forums and noticed that maybe Windows Update neglected to even bother to fetch some updates for me to install.

Below are Windows Updates to install manually by downloading the file.

The below windows update should ONLY be installed on Windows 10 2004

You should also install the following 2 windows updates in the following order.


AFTER the above 2 Windows Updates are installed, install ONE of the following Windows Update depending on your computer's processor type (or architecture). You either have a 32 bit, 64 bit, or ARM processor.

Direct download links for KB5000736 MSU file from Microsoft Update Catalog:


After I installed all the relevant windows updates, my startup speed went back to how it was the first day I used the computer, you know, after a clean install after wiping everything out.

Now it takes 2m50s to reach the login screen which is the optimum time.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for letting us know.

However, you can also check the start-up items' impact as I asked you to do in my previous post. You have nothing to loose.
 
I went to the startup tab in Task Manager and disabled some programs which don't need to run at startup. That should help.

Autoruns is another good software for managing what runs at startup

autoruns screenshot.png
 
desbest said:
  • Intel Serial IO Driver
  • Realtek Wireless LAN Driver aka Realtek FE/GbE Family Controller
  • Intel Chipset Driver
Click to expand...

I forgot to add the following driver to uninstall
  • Realtek Ethernet Controller Driver


Click to expand...

Remember to note which specific Windows 10 version each windows update is compatible with and whether it's not suitable for the version that you're currently using.
 

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