How to Improve the Boot Performance of a Run-Time Image
The boot speed of your device is related to both the hardware in the device, and the run-time image you create. You can improve the boot time of your run-time image by examining the hardware configuration of your device as well as by updating your run-time image. In general, reducing the number of hardware devices that the image must support, and reducing the footprint size of your image, improves boot performance.
There are many strategies you can use to reduce your device's boot time. Not all of these will work for all applications or devices, but you should be able to use many of these to improve boot time performance.
To track your progress in the following table, select the check box next to each step.
| Step | Topic | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Change BIOS settings, type of media on your device, and CPU to improve boot performance. | Hardware Device Changes that Can Improve Boot Performance | |
| 2. Create the smallest possible hardware device list, by only adding the hardware present on your device. | Detect Hardware Devices with Target Analyzer and Windows PE | |
| 3. Remove unneeded dependencies and devices, and avoid dependencies that pull in large components. Each application and service that starts during system boot can slow boot performance. | Remove Unnecessary Devices to Optimize Footprint | |
| 4. Disable Plug and Play and remove any unnecessary device drivers. Plug and Play can slow the boot time of a system while it polls for devices. | Preventing Plug and Play | |
| 5. Reduce the footprint size of your run-time image. | Footprint | |
| 6. Use the smallest shell possible, either by using a baseline configuration with Minlogon or Winlogon, or by using your main application as a custom shell. | Baseline Configurations
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| 7. Boot from a hibernation file. Hibernation files allow you to resume quickly from a saved state.
If you are using Enhanced Write Filter, you configure your run-time image to boot from a hibernation file. |
Configuring the Power Management Settings of a Run-Time Image
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| 8. Diagnose why the system boots slowly, by examining the FBALOG.TXT file to determine what runs during First Boot Agent.
In addition to FBALOG.TXT, you may want to search the Internet for other tools that provide boot performance tracing and visualization. |
Viewing the FBALOG.TXT File |
See Also
How to Add Hardware Information to a Configuration | First Boot Agent | Tutorial: Building and Deploying a Run-Time Image
Last updated on Wednesday, October 18, 2006
© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.