How to Fix Slow Boot in Windows 10 and 11

A slow boot is almost always caused by one of three things: too many startup programs, a slow or failing drive, or a problematic driver. Here's how to find the culprit and fix it.

Measure Your Boot Time

First, get a baseline:

# Last boot time
(Get-Date) - (Get-CimInstance Win32_OperatingSystem).LastBootUpTime

For detailed boot analysis, open Event Viewer:

Win + R → eventvwr.msc → Applications and Services Logs → Microsoft → Windows → Diagnostics-Performance → Operational

Filter for Event ID 100 — this shows total boot time in milliseconds and lists which processes delayed startup.

Step 1: Disable Startup Programs

The most common cause of slow boot.

Ctrl + Shift + Esc → Startup apps → sort by Startup impact → disable everything with High impact that you don't need immediately.

# See what's registered to start with Windows
Get-CimInstance Win32_StartupCommand | Select-Object Name, Command, Location

Step 2: Enable Fast Startup

Fast Startup saves the kernel session to disk on shutdown, cutting boot time significantly.

Control Panel → Power Options → Choose what the power buttons do → Turn on fast startup (check the box)

Note: Fast Startup can occasionally cause issues with dual-boot setups or when applying BIOS updates. Disable it temporarily if you run into problems.

Step 3: Check Drive Speed

A slow HDD is often the bottleneck. SSDs boot Windows in under 10 seconds; HDDs take 30-60+.

winsat disk -drive c

If sequential read is below 100 MB/s on an HDD — the drive is degraded. Consider upgrading to SSD.

Also check for bad sectors:

chkdsk C: /f /r

Step 4: Find Slow Drivers

Problematic drivers delay boot without showing obvious errors.

In Event Viewer (Diagnostics-Performance → Operational), look for Event ID 101 — these show driver load times. Any driver taking over 1000ms is worth investigating.

# List all drivers with load order
Get-WmiObject Win32_SystemDriver | Where-Object {$_.State -eq "Running"} | 
  Select-Object Name, PathName | Sort-Object Name

Update or roll back drivers that appear in slow boot events.

Step 5: Delay Non-Essential Services

Some services start at boot but don't need to. Delaying them improves boot time without disabling them.

Win + R → services.msc → find services you don't need immediately → double-click → change Startup type from Automatic to Automatic (Delayed Start)

Good candidates for delayed start:

Windows Search (WSearch)
Print Spooler (if you rarely print)
Windows Update (wuauserv)
Bluetooth support (if not using Bluetooth)

# Delay a service via PowerShell
Set-Service -Name "WSearch" -StartupType AutomaticDelayedStart

Step 6: Check for Malware

Malware often installs itself as a startup item and slows boot considerably.

Start-MpScan -ScanType QuickScan

Also run a full scan if the quick scan finds nothing but boot is still slow.

Step 7: Rebuild BCD (If Boot Is Very Slow Before Login)

If Windows is slow before the login screen appears, the Boot Configuration Data may be corrupted.

Boot from Windows installation USB → Repair your computer → Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Command Prompt:

bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /rebuildbcd

Expected Boot Times

Storage	Expected boot time
NVMe SSD	5–10 seconds
SATA SSD	10–20 seconds
HDD (7200rpm)	30–60 seconds
HDD (5400rpm)	45–90 seconds

If your SSD boots slower than expected — check startup programs and drivers first.

Summary

Check Event Viewer (Event ID 100) to see total boot time and what's slowing it. Fix in order: disable high-impact startup programs → enable Fast Startup → check drive health → delay non-essential services. If nothing helps, upgrade from HDD to SSD — it's the single biggest improvement possible.