HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\MMC\
Doesn’t exist on my system either.
Ewen 
I have MRT and RTC, but no MMC (:SAD)
M$ must either be wrong or that registry branch is for W2K.
Thanks Matty, but I already find framedyn.dll on my XP CD and XP nLite CD. No go :(. I’m suspecting it’s the entire WBEM folder that’s needed. (I’m sure SP3 would resolve this, but that would be more off-topic ;D).
Later on, I’m thinking of removing Security Accounts Manager service altogether and go with the alternative: regedit. http://www.j79zlr.com/gphome.php → Only problem is this site shows all the registry settings under User Configuration and missing Computer Configuration. So I’ll have to dig some more to find out.
I feel more relieved now that I found some good news:
unlike what I’ve researched over the years from popular service slimming sites including even BlackViper!, disabling the Security Accounts Manager (SAM) service does not kill my Group Policy Editor tweaks. I think in the past incarnation of my PC (last reformat) it might’ve did, but I notice no difference at all in disabling this service now :BNC
To be extra safe (is that an off-topic adjective for this thread ???), I backed up the main areas of my registry that I believe GPEDIT covers:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentCersion\Policies
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentCersion\Policies
So now I have 10 running services (with the ocassional annoying, yet unexplainable Windows Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) service starting on its own whenever I open any image file with MS Paint or Windows Viewer and Fax Viewer).
Open services.msc, find the WIA-service and double-click it. Click the tab named ‘Log in’ or something, and under ‘Hardware Profile’, set it do disabled. This way, it won’t help if it sets itself as automatic, it’ll still be unable to start.
I already knew about the hardware profile trick long ago, but thanks for the suggestion. It’ll help newbie service freaks like LA.
The only problem is I need WIA for occasional uploading of pictures from a camera and just in case I need to use my webcam. Also, with it disabled, it’ll generate an error in the Event Log. Unless I find out the mystery behind why the Image & Fax Viewer and MS Paint triggers the service, I’ll have to live with it.
Update: I also disabled Task Scheduler after I half-assedly followed the 12 second boot trick. It didn’t work, but my boot is slightly faster. So 9 running services under regular circumstances.
Well, if you haven’t (tho I guess you have), disable the welcome screen! If you write fast, you won’t lose any time by writing name and password (I do it in less than a second).
If I didn’t have to think, this post would’ve taken me only a few seconds to write… But after I met ganda, I don’t want to think about not being able to think, because now I know what it’ll be like :o
I spend 0 seconds to enter my username and password because I don’t have one :BNC
Does removing the Welcome screen really help speed it up? I did it previously and it felt slower for a bit. Also, wouldn’t that disable the XP logo sequence? I always use that a counter. Mine passes 6 times now instead of 4-5 >:(
For me it does, as else I get a few seconds delay before the welcome screen shows up (first it’s black, then blue, then welcome screen appears).
No, it won’t. But skipping the boot sequence and have everything loaded at once wouldn’t be too bad.
ISTR that doing this meant that a boot-time disk check couldn’t be seen, so unless one realises what’s happening the delay is a bit worrying.
It does not work.
LA
You’re right. Looks like my PC’s previous incarnation/reformat was far from perfect because this one’s look great (:KWL). Slightly faster shutdown, but definitely noticeable faster startup :-TU. Now I’m going to really follow that 12 second boot-up trick whole-heartedly. We’ll see after 10-20 reboots ;D. If there’s anything that I find factual based on my experience, it’s that the prefetcher option from the default 3 (boot+app) to 2 (boot only), I notice no application startup delays at all. So LA was right to stick with the value 2 after all. Then I’ll re-disable Task Scheduler.
I confused between the 2: disabling the welcome screen just gets rid of the blue screen (not the BSOD :P) and changes how users log off. It also switches the “Turn Off Computer…” to “Shutdown…” in the start menu. While disabling the XP logo with the blue progress bars is something else - that’s the one that removes check disk,etc. messages and is disabled through msconfig or the boot.ini file. That one might strip off half a second, but I’m going to leave it.
Thanks for checking. Unless you blindly removed registry keys with RegSeeker after all the tweaking, my guess was correct in that the entire WBEM folder was needed to run gpedit.
Don’t you mean re-enable Task Scheduler? Or are you saying that boot prefetch doesn’t need that service? If so, I would gladly enable prefetch again, without turning on TS… :-TU
LA
You didn’t read that 11 second boot guide? :o
I already re-enabled Task Scheduler last night. I’m not certain if the layout.ini file will be re-created because the only file I have in the Prefetch folder is NTOSBOOT-_______.pf. After 10-20 reboots, I’ll disable Task Scheduler. It’s true that Task Scheduler is only needed for the option 3 (boot & app prefetch), but that “Chat” guy said you strangely need TS running to push the boot-times near the edge of the hard drive or something. So after those x # of reboots, everything should be perfected and TS can be disabled.
No, I haven’t read it, this far. I’m not yet much into manual registry tweaking, that’s the next topic.
Very strange, maybe worth a try. I’ll enable TS and Prefetch, reboot 20 times, then disable TS…
LA
no no. This the correct order of things (that Chat guy’s message was seriously disorganized, so no wonder it’s confusing):
- Enable Task Scheduler to Auto
- Regedit to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters[b]EnablePrefetcher[/b] → Ensure the value is 2 to prefetch boot files only
- Delete all files in %systemroot%\Prefetch
- Wait after 10-20 normal reboots. Normal probably means don’t intentionally reboot consecutively, but to do your casual PC usage.
- Disable Task Scheduler
- Repeat the above if you start noticing boot-times are slow over several months.
Since he has a 2.17 GHz AMD, it should be slower than mine. Other than some various drivers and programs, I can’t see how he can beat my boot-time :-.
Wasn’t it 12 second boot guide a few posts ago? 88)
It works just fine for me, and I don’t have that stupid WBEM-folder.
I know but that Chat guy said he sometimes can attain 11 seconds. If you read further on in that thread, he said it’s possible to get it down to 7-8 seconds.
That narrows it down to either some dlls I deleted and/or RegSeeker. Can’t get any more specific than that unfortunately. Either way, it since Gpedit is useless now, so I might as well go all the way through and remove it.
It’s no hard to get fast boot. Just reformat your computer. By the way, what do you define as the boot time? From your turn on the computer until you can log in?
gpedit has always been useless?
Thanks for the advice. (:HUG)
(maybe one day I’ll be able to vastly decrease my boot time from 33 seconds to… well, less than that.)
LA