How fast can Windows 10 bootup?

Q: How fast can Windows 10 boot up?

A: Faster than... "300 head of cattle, goin' hell-bent for the horizon".


My computer, in specs... (restart), boots to logon screen in 37 seconds and to desktop in 40 seconds.

GottaGetSumDat said:

A) OEM rigs are generally loaded with that company's bloatwarez, most of which are set to launch at boot time (or nag at you to see if you want to launch them), which will slow down the boot process...fixed hardware settings are fine & dandy, but they have little control over how/when/why the bloatwarez loads and what effects they have on overall system performance...

B) Yes, retail/performance boards are highly configurable, but once those settings are made and booted into the 1st time, they don't effect boot times after that...unless as you say, some settings and/or hardware are changed, then the self-test will occur again, but only once... HOWEVER, this is also true with OEM machines too...

C) The main reason(s) a custom gammin machine would boot slower would be because they almost always have discrete GPU's installed, which require their own drivers to load early in the boot process in order to route the video signals to your monitor, and MOST of those drivers are loaded with features, some good, some not so much, that may or may not be enabled by default. So here again, the owner can turn those features on or off, and will have to deal with the consequences thereof.....

This is separate from the uber-bloatloadz of unnecessary start-up, add-on & optimization crap that most gamz install by default, which again, WILL slow down the boot process....but you can't blame the hardware for this....

That's all nice but you miss the main point of my post. Every computer is different so saying one computer is better than another only because it boots faster is pointless.

Sure the OP could reduce the boot time by disabling startup items but at what cost? I find many startup items useful. I only disable startup items that are unnecessary. Chasing ones tail trying to minimize the boot time beyond a certain point is a waste of time.

Ghot said:

Q: How fast can Windows 10 boot up?

A: Faster than... "Hell-bent for leather".


My computer, in specs... (restart), boots to logon screen in 37 seconds and to desktop in 40 seconds.

How did you measure those times? It matters.

My main desktop has an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X CPU. Using "Restart-Time.bat" I found the restart time to be 137 seconds. No record breaker but fast enough for me.

BTW, I have a 17-year laptop:
Toshiba Tecra M7-S7331
CPU: Intel Core Duo T2400
RAM: 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2-667
HDD: WD Scorpio 2.5" SATA HDD 250GB
O/S: Windows 10 Professional

The restart time is 218 seconds. Is the restart time too slow? How would I know?

MisterEd said:

How did you measure those times? It matters.

I have my Win 10 and Win 11 stripped to the bone.
These screens are from Windows 11... but my Win 10 is the same...







I only allow three things through my Bitdefender firewall, normally... (FF, svchost and WAU Manager).
Used Autoruns to block EDGE from starting with Windows... I run CCleaner 2-3 times a day, etc., etc., etc.
No OneDrive, no syncing, no sharing, no local email client, no external devices, no Cortana... etc.
No STEAM, no Ubisoft, no EA, no APP updates, no OFFICE.
Bitdefender AV/firewall takes control from Windows Defender/firewall.
Bitdefender has 13 modules... I only run three... the AV/firewall and Threat Defense.
UAC and Smart Screen are disabled. All the MS junk in Settings is turned off.
Only tweakers I run are Winaero Tweaker and TranslucentTB.


I used a stop watch. One hand on mouse, the other on the stop watch start button.
Started it when I clicked "Restart" and took lap time at logon screen and then again at Desktop.

The .bat file is about 4-5 seconds slower... repeated, many times as a test.

Ghot said:

I have my Win 10 and Win 11 stripped to the bone.
These screens are from Windows 11... but my Win 10 is the same...







I only allow three things through my Bitdefender firewall.
Used Autoruns to block EDGE from starting with Windows... I run CCleaner 2-3 times a day, etc., etc., etc.



I used a stop watch. One hand on mouse, the other on the stop watch start button.
Started it when I clicked "Restart" and took lap time at logon screen and then again at Desktop.

Even when you see the desktop, processes are still running in the background as part of the startup process. You really haven't finished the startup until these processes have finished. On some computers with limited resources you really can't do anything until this happens.

Scripts like "Restart-Time.bat" were written so people would have a more standard way to measure the startup time. Note the script measures the time for the computer to restart. The timer starts when you click on its dialog. The computer then shuts down and restarts. The time doesn't stop until you are logged in and all the startup processes have completed.

Your boot result is hard to compare with any other computer because of the way you did it. Why don't you run the "Restart-Time.bat" so is comparable to other computers?

Here is the result I get when I run "Restart-Time.bat":

MisterEd said:

Even when you see the desktop, processes are still running in the background as part of the startup process. You really haven't finished the startup until these processes have finished. On some computers with limited resources you really can't do anything until this happens.

Scripts like "Restart-Time.bat" were written so people would have a more standard way to measure the startup time. Note the script measures the time for the computer to restart. The timer starts when you click on its dialog. The computer then shuts down and restarts. The time doesn't stop until you are logged in and all the startup processes have completed.

Your boot result is hard to compare with any other computer because of the way you did it. Why don't you run the "Restart-Time.bat" so is comparable to other computers?

Here is the result I get when I run "Restart-Time.bat":

Like I said... when I run the script... my times are about 4-5 seconds slower than the stop watch times.
We spent hours testing on ElevenForum.

Turtley said:

I'm right with you Ghot! My boot time from power on to desktop is 21 seconds using stopwatch. My task manager last BIOS time shows 10.0 seconds. Restart time is also 21 seconds.

My startup tab only has 1 item which is Windows Security Notification icon. If that is just an Icon then I can remove that too. I guess?
In Revo Uninstaller I have 16 apps and only 5 Windows apps.

I've also disabled 23 un-needed services which most were on manual but I disabled anyway.

It seems most are including the Windows login screen in their measurement where I use the Auto Admin Logon registry settings.

That sounds about right. You're using a NVMe SSD, rather than a 2.5" like I am.