BootRacer-Check Your Boot Speed

[ha14]

When we tweak windows to gain some power speed, oftenly we are concerned with the booting speed and there is a soft called bootracer that can check the speed of booting and the speed to desktop once or on every boot as one wishes.  Well my first shock was that I had a poor booting result and had to close some programs that boots with windows in order to gain good ratings. So I thought to share with this community and others are welcomed to add their ratings here 

http://www.greatis.com/bootracer/

So are there who are more familiar with this soft?

[MilesAhead]

You can get a VB script that shows the reboot time from this tutorial:

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/151819-boot-up-time.html

It doesn't have options like the software that must be installed. Just uses
the Run Once key and checks the timer tick.

If you have very high reboot times and trimming down the autostart stuff doesn't help you can also turn on boot logging.  Sometimes the computer times out waiting to load a driver that's no longer on the system.  That can add 10 or 20 seconds onto your boot time whereas a crowded startup folder only adds a few seconds on a fast machine with a fast HD.

When I first got my quad core I used PC decrapifier to clean off the unwanted-ware.  Unfortunately the uninstall doesn't always clean out Registry settings that try to load drivers that, after the uninstall, no longer exist. I had
to download "cleanup tools" to get rid of all the remnants.

[Curt]

I am not too impressed with this minimalistic kind of programs. BootRacer doesn't try to include the aeons of time from the moment I click "C:\" in the computer boot logon and until the Vista logon shows up (I guess it may not be possible?). In my sad case this is several minutes. Nor does it try to count the shut-down timing. Which in my still sad case also is several minutes. Maybe I should have tried the "re-boot" feature, but I didn't.

[MilesAhead]

Hmmmmm, I don't know if it's coincidence or the fact that BootSpeed puts that run-once entry in the Registry, but it seems like every time I go to time my warm boot using it, shutdown takes twice as long as normal(subjectively seems that way anyway.)

But Curt, if you use BootSpeed that's all it times is a warm boot. It sticks the entry in run once and stores the timer tick, then subtracts the timer tick from the current one when it opens on reboot. I haven't really looked at the code to see if it accounts for passing midnight or any of that. But the time is measured from the moment you click it until it comes up after the warm boot.

[ha14]

VB script gives only the boot time but bootracer calculates also time to desktop, has better interface and keeps history so one can scroll back and checks the best time that had and can try to figure out what went wrong if after that point the boot time is becoming bad.

[MilesAhead]

I realize that.  But the VB script is good for those who don't want to install an application just to time their boots.  Plus by definition you have the source code.

It's just an alternative. I don't say don't use the first utility if you like it.

[ha14]

Hi

I contacted  BootRacer sotmaker and replied as fiollow

Timeout for choosing operational system is hard to evaluate.
You can change the timeout to 0 by editing "boot.ini".

Hope this info will help

[MilesAhead]

Hi

I contacted  BootRacer sotmaker and replied as fiollow

Timeout for choosing operational system is hard to evaluate.
You can change the timeout to 0 by editing "boot.ini".

Hope this info will help

What I do is sit and watch.  When the boot menu comes up I hit Enter to avoid the wait. Or you can just subtract the setting you have.  I use an 8 second delay. If Bootspeed says 78 seconds then I know it's 70.

[ha14]

Well, I think that will be difficult to realy calculate the booting time with a stop watch, in my opinion an accurate numbre can be obtained only with a good software. Since some can also keep a log file so that one can look deeper for configuration.

[sajman99]

Well, I think that will be difficult to realy calculate the booting time with a stop watch, in my opinion an accurate numbre can be obtained only with a good software. Since some can also keep a log file so that one can look deeper for configuration.

You're likely correct that software would provide a more precise measurement of boot time, but hey--a stopwatch works OK for me.

But I guess I'm just cheap. I mean, I can't really see paying for software to tell me my stopwatch was off by a few seconds.

[MilesAhead]

For one computer I don't see the need.  If you are a sysadmin with a computer farm to manage then something like that may be a good tool.  What is the obsession with nano-seconds to boot? If it comes up clean so I can get a coffee that's what matters to me.  If you have to keep reconfiguring stuff or installing stuff and you end up in a rebooting cycle all day then I can see it.

For one computer what's so difficult about using a stop watch?  Unless it takes so long you fall asleep and forget to stop the watch?

[MilesAhead]

Well, I think that will be difficult to realy calculate the booting time with a stop watch, in my opinion an accurate numbre can be obtained only with a good software. Since some can also keep a log file so that one can look deeper for configuration.

You're likely correct that software would provide a more precise measurement of boot time, but hey--a stopwatch works OK for me.

But I guess I'm just cheap. I mean, I can't really see paying for software to tell me my stopwatch was off by a few seconds.

Plus if you really want to save a buck you can say "One Mississippi, ..."
Funny but when I was a kid there was some stupid commercial where they had
a close up of this guy pressing a stop watch and then stopping it after exactly
one second.  After seeing that commercial a zillion times I could imagine that
watch ticking and visualize a 1 second interval pretty well. I could get up to
about 10 seconds dead nuts.  Weird.

[sajman99]

For one computer I don't see the need.  If you are a sysadmin with a computer farm to manage then something like that may be a good tool.  What is the obsession with nano-seconds to boot? If it comes up clean so I can get a coffee that's what matters to me.  If you have to keep reconfiguring stuff or installing stuff and you end up in a rebooting cycle all day then I can see it.

For one computer what's so difficult about using a stop watch?  Unless it takes so long you fall asleep and forget to stop the watch?

Maybe make sure you take a few gulps of that coffee before turning on the machine.

[Darwin]

But I guess I'm just cheap. I mean, I can't really see paying for software to tell me my stopwatch was off by a few seconds.

Isn't Bootracer freeware?

[Curt]

-no, not "freeware", but free for private use.
Single BootRacer Business License = 19.95 USD

[sajman99]

But I guess I'm just cheap. I mean, I can't really see paying for software to tell me my stopwatch was off by a few seconds.

Isn't Bootracer freeware?

Yep, BootRacer is free for non-commercial use.

Initially I was thinking about a commercial license for $19.95, but decided against it. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

[MilesAhead]

For one computer I don't see the need.  If you are a sysadmin with a computer farm to manage then something like that may be a good tool.  What is the obsession with nano-seconds to boot? If it comes up clean so I can get a coffee that's what matters to me.  If you have to keep reconfiguring stuff or installing stuff and you end up in a rebooting cycle all day then I can see it.

For one computer what's so difficult about using a stop watch?  Unless it takes so long you fall asleep and forget to stop the watch?

Maybe make sure you take a few gulps of that coffee before turning on the machine.

Either that or leave the volume maxed so the logon welcome wakes me up.

[ha14]

There is also 3DP Bench 9.06
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Benchmarks/3DP-Bench.shtml

The 3DP Bench application was designed to be a small tool that measures boot up time, reboot time and provides online ranking system. Compare your system with other users on online ranking.