Hack Your BIOS for Faster Startups

When you turn on your PC, it goes through a set of startup procedures in its BIOS before it gets to
starting Windows. So, if you speed up those initial startup procedures, you’ll make your system start
faster.
You can speed up your startup procedures by changing the BIOS with the built-in setup utility. How
you run this utility varies from PC to PC, but you typically get to it by pressing either the Delete, F1,
or F10 key during startup. You’ll come to a menu with a variety of choices. Here are the choices to
make for faster system startups:
Quick Power On Self Test (POST)
When you choose this option, your system runs an abbreviated POST rather than the normal, lengthy
one.
Change Your Boot Order
If you change the boot order so that your BIOS checks the hard disk fi rst for booting, it won’t check
any other devices, and will speed up your startup time.
Boot Up Floppy Seek
Disable this option. When it’s enabled, your system spends a few extra seconds looking for your
fl oppy drive—a relatively pointless procedure, especially considering how infrequently you use your
fl oppy drive.
Boot Delay
Some systems let you delay booting after you turn on your PC so that your hard drive gets a chance
to start spinning before bootup. Most likely, you don’t need to have this boot delay, so turn it off. If
you run into problems, however, you can turn it back on.