How to Fix Slow Startup on Windows 10 and 11

Why Windows takes so long to start

This guide explains how to fix slow startup on Windows 10 and 11, starting with a quick measurement and then moving from the easiest fix to the deepest one.

A slow startup is not one problem. It is usually several small delays added together: too many apps launching at sign-in, a nearly full drive, outdated storage drivers, or a hard drive that cannot keep up. Fixing it works best when you measure first, then work from the easiest fix to the deepest one, instead of changing ten settings at once and never learning which one helped.

Before you change anything, get a baseline. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager, go to the Startup tab, and look at “Last BIOS time” in the top right. That number is how long your PC took to hand control to Windows. Anything under 20 seconds is normal on a modern PC. Over 30 seconds points to a hardware or driver delay. Then time the rest yourself: from the moment you press the power button until the desktop is usable, not just visible. Write both numbers down. You will compare them after each fix.

One more diagnosis matters more than any tool: does the delay happen before you sign in, or after? If the PC sits on the manufacturer logo or a black screen for a long time before the sign-in screen, the cause is usually BIOS settings, drivers, or the drive itself. If sign-in is quick but the desktop takes minutes to become usable, with the mouse spinning and apps popping in one by one, the cause is almost always startup apps and background services. That distinction tells you where to start.

1. Turn off unnecessary startup apps

This is the single most effective fix for a slow desktop after sign-in, and it is fully reversible.

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager.
2. Go to the Startup tab (on Windows 11, click Startup apps in the left menu).
3. Look at the Startup impact column. Apps marked High are the ones slowing you down most.
4. Right-click an app you do not need immediately at sign-in and choose Disable. Disabling does not uninstall the app. It only stops it from launching at startup. You can still open it by hand any time.
5. Repeat for every app you recognize and do not need right away: chat apps, game launchers, music players, cloud storage you rarely use, update helpers for software you open once a month.

Do not disable everything. Leave these alone: your antivirus or Windows Security, audio and graphics driver helpers (Realtek, NVIDIA, AMD), and anything from your PC maker that handles power or hotkeys if you use those keys. If you are unsure about an entry, right-click it and choose Search online to see what it does before you disable it. Restart and time the result. Most people recover 30 seconds to two minutes here alone.

2. Check Fast Startup, and turn it off if it causes trouble

Fast Startup is a Windows setting that saves part of the system state to disk at shutdown so the next boot is quicker. On most PCs it helps. On some it causes strange problems: updates that never finish, drivers that misbehave after shutdown, or a PC that seems to start fast but runs badly. If your startup got slower after a Windows update or a driver update, Fast Startup is worth testing.

1. Open Control Panel, then Power Options.
2. Click “Choose what the power buttons do” on the left.
3. Click “Change settings that are currently unavailable” at the top.
4. Under Shutdown settings, uncheck “Turn on fast startup” to test with it off, or check it to test with it on.
5. Click Save changes, then shut down fully (not restart) and power on again to test.

Restart ignores Fast Startup, so always test with a full shutdown and power-on. If turning it off makes startup faster or fixes odd behavior, leave it off. The cost is a few extra seconds on a healthy PC, which is a fair trade for stability. If you dual-boot with Linux, leave Fast Startup off permanently, because it can lock the Windows drive and block access from the other system.

3. Free up disk space

Windows needs free space to work. Paging, updates, and temporary files all need room, and a drive that is more than 85 to 90 percent full will slow everything, including startup. Aim for at least 10 to 15 percent free, or 20 GB, whichever is larger.

1. Open Settings, then System, then Storage.
2. Turn on Storage Sense and click it to set it to run automatically. It clears temporary files and old Recycle Bin items on a schedule.
3. Click Temporary files and remove what you do not need, including Windows Update Cleanup and Delivery Optimization Files.
4. Go to Apps, then Installed apps, sort by size, and uninstall programs you have not opened in months.
5. Move large personal files, such as videos and photo libraries, to an external drive or cloud storage.

On the system drive, never delete folders you do not recognize, especially anything under Windows or Program Files. If space is still tight after cleanup, the drive itself may be too small for your current use, and that points to the SSD upgrade in step 8.

4. Update Windows and your storage drivers

Outdated storage drivers are a common cause of long BIOS times and black-screen delays. Windows Update handles most drivers, but storage controller drivers from your PC or motherboard maker are sometimes newer than what Windows offers.

1. Open Settings, then Windows Update, and install all available updates, including optional driver updates listed under Advanced options.
2. Open Device Manager (right-click Start, then Device Manager).
3. Expand “IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers” and “Storage controllers”. Right-click each entry, choose Update driver, then “Search automatically for drivers”.
4. If your PC maker (Dell, HP, Lenovo, ASUS, and others) offers a support app or driver page for your exact model, check it for chipset and storage drivers newer than the ones installed.

Restart after driver updates and check the Last BIOS time again. A drop of several seconds here means the old driver was part of the problem.

5. Scan for malware

Malware and unwanted miners often hide as background processes that start with Windows and consume CPU and disk from the first minute. A sudden slow startup, with high disk or CPU use in Task Manager right after sign-in, is a reason to scan.

1. Open Windows Security from the Start menu.
2. Go to Virus and threat protection, then Scan options.
3. Choose Full scan and start it. This takes longer than a quick scan but checks every file.
4. If anything is found, follow the recommended action, then restart and retest.

Do not install a second antivirus alongside Windows Security or your existing antivirus. Two real-time scanners fight each other and slow startup further. One good, up-to-date scanner is enough.

6. Repair system files with SFC and DISM

Corrupt system files can stall startup services. Two built-in tools repair them, and the order matters: DISM first to repair the component store, then SFC to repair protected files from it.

1. Right-click Start and choose Terminal (Admin) on Windows 11, or Windows PowerShell (Admin) on Windows 10. Click Yes on the permission prompt.
2. Type this command and press Enter: DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
3. Wait for it to finish. It can take 10 to 20 minutes and may appear stuck at one percentage for a while. That is normal.
4. Then type: sfc /scannow
5. Press Enter and wait for the result. If it reports that it found and fixed corrupt files, restart and retest.

If SFC reports problems it could not fix, run DISM once more and then SFC again. If both still fail, the Windows installation itself may need the repair install described at the end of the Windows update error guide, but that is a last step, not a first one.

7. Try a clean boot to find a conflicting program

A clean boot starts Windows with only Microsoft services and no third-party startup items. If startup is fast in a clean boot, some third-party program is the cause, and you can find it by turning items back on in groups.

1. Press Windows + R, type msconfig, and press Enter.
2. Go to the Services tab, check “Hide all Microsoft services” at the bottom, then click Disable all.
3. Go to the Startup tab and click Open Task Manager. Disable every startup item there.
4. Close Task Manager, click OK in System Configuration, and restart.
5. If startup is fast now, reopen msconfig and re-enable services and startup items in small groups, restarting each time, until the slowdown returns. The last group you enabled contains the culprit.

To return to normal, open msconfig, choose Normal startup on the General tab, re-enable your startup items in Task Manager, and restart. A clean boot changes nothing permanently. It is a test, and you must undo it when you are done, or your usual apps will not start with Windows.

8. Replace a hard drive with an SSD

If your PC still uses a mechanical hard drive (HDD) as its system drive, no setting will fully fix slow startup. An SSD is roughly five times faster at the random reads Windows does during boot, and it is the largest single upgrade for an older PC.

Check first: in Task Manager, go to Performance, then Disk, and look at the drive type. If it says HDD, an SSD upgrade applies to you. A 500 GB SATA SSD fits most desktops and laptops and costs less than most other upgrades. You can clone your existing drive to the new SSD with free tools from SSD makers, so you do not need to reinstall Windows, but back up your files first anyway, because cloning can fail. If your PC has an M.2 slot, an NVMe SSD is faster still, but check your manual for the supported size and type before buying.

After moving Windows to an SSD, the Last BIOS time and the desktop-usable time both usually drop sharply. If they do not, the remaining delay is in startup apps or services, and steps 1 and 7 will find it.

9. Reduce search indexing load on older drives

On an HDD, Windows Search indexing can hammer the disk during and after startup. If your drive light stays busy for several minutes after sign-in and Task Manager shows SearchIndexer using the disk heavily, limit what gets indexed.

1. Open Control Panel, then Indexing Options.
2. Click Modify and uncheck folders you never search, such as large media archives.
3. Click Advanced, then Rebuild, to rebuild the index cleanly. Do this once, overnight if needed, and let it finish before judging the result.

On an SSD, this step rarely matters, because the drive handles indexing easily. Do not turn off Windows Search entirely. It breaks Start menu search and Outlook search, and the saving is small compared with the annoyance.

How to tell whether it worked

Retest the same way you measured at the start: Last BIOS time in Task Manager, plus stopwatch time from power button to a usable desktop. A good result is a desktop you can click and type in without waiting, not just a visible desktop. Test after each fix, not after all of them at once, so you know what actually helped. If startup is still slow after steps 1 through 7 and you are on an SSD, check the BIOS time again: a long BIOS time with a fast desktop points to firmware or a connected device, such as a slow USB drive or a failing secondary disk. Disconnect USB devices except keyboard and mouse and test once to rule that out.

What not to do

Registry cleaners and “PC optimizer” tools promise faster startup and mostly deliver risk. They rarely remove a real cause and can delete entries Windows needs. The same goes for disabling services you found in a random list. Windows services exist for a reason, and disabling the wrong one can break updates, networking, or audio. Stick to startup apps (safe, reversible), the steps above, and hardware where the evidence points to it. If a tool asks you to pay to fix startup speed, close it.

Frequently asked questions

Conclusion

A slow startup is usually a sign that too many programs are loading at boot, or that an old hard drive is holding the system back. The steps in this guide show how to fix slow startup on Windows without spending anything: disable startup apps, update drivers, and repair system files.

If your PC still starts slowly after all the steps, check whether it is running on a hard drive. Moving Windows to an SSD is the single upgrade that makes the biggest difference. Start with the free fixes first, and only spend money when the free steps have not solved it.