[quote comment=”9040″]… starts sluggishly just like your average Windows desktop.

That’s true, but if you’re able to open a terminal window, you can always killall some application, not the same in windows, or at least, not so easy.[/quote]

not so easy for some… but if you have XP professional (not home edition) you can run from a command line:
taskkill /im nameofapp.exe
with /f optionally for “Force”

works well

This problem is even more ridiculous on the computers at my school. Literally everything–even stuff like Office, which is installed on the hard drives–is launched by using Novell ZENWorks, which is basically a glorified Program Manager with the ability to distribute stuff over the network.

The ZENWorks splash screen pops up after you log in during the “load tray apps” phase. However, it isn’t done initializing when everything else is. There’s about twenty seconds of absolutely nothing happening. The Start Menu is pretty much completely lobotomized, so all you can do during that time is open up Explorer and go to your student drive.

If you try that, however, you get your ass kicked. The only thing that ZENWorks actually sends over the network are settings changes to disable screen rotation and hide everything in My Computer save your student drive and certain elective-based drives (eg: you have Q:\ if you’re in a business class, or O:\ for tech ed.) This displays about six progress dialogs that open and then close in a fraction of a second. They steal focus, so if you try to do work while waiting for ZENWorks to disable half of Windows, you keep losing control of Word or Dreamweaver or jgrasp or that clandestine DOSBox you’re running from a USB drive.

Only after that happens do you get an “Applications” icon on the desktop, which is the only way to run most programs.

[quote comment=”9289″]I found something that you might dig: http://windows-get.sourceforge.net/index.php%5B/quote%5D

Heh, I actually blogged about win-get some time ago.

maybe my computer is just wicked fast but i never really have a problem with that…
Although i modded the boot thing for windows so basically its only AVG SpyBot and MSN that loads

I found something that you might dig: http://windows-get.sourceforge.net/index.php

[quote comment=”9067″]This is the very reason why I ran BeOS for nearly five years as my primary desktop. From flip-the-power-switch to completely-loaded-fully-functional-desktop in 18 seconds. No HDD light flickering after that point. it was in memory, and ready for work. (This was in the days when Windows took several minutes to boot on 486 class hardware.)[/quote]

This was also in the days when windows used to crash with monotonous frequency, so you’d see that several minute bootup time and time again

So I’ve just got a ‘prototype’ Shuttle to test before we get a bunch of them for our devs – Core 2 Quad q9450, 4GB RAM, 32-bit Vista Business – and it takes 65 seconds from pressing the power button to seeing the desktop, including 5 seconds of “oh shit, I’m timing this and forgot to be near enough the keyboard to log in”. So your BeOS still wins!

Interestingly the boot process doesn’t even start looking at what’s on the hard drive until about 19-20 seconds in.

It’s funny – I asked for a machine that can run Vista so I can learn it a bit more intimately before our Service guys start asking me support questions on it. Instead of getting a midrange computer, they gave me this monster. So here I am with the most powerful computer in the building as my permanent desktop, and I use it for email, web browsing, and a little light Officework. It’s weird… I feel like a senior manager or an admin temp or something…

and the CAPTCHA is ‘win’ :)

This is the very reason why I ran BeOS for nearly five years as my primary desktop. From flip-the-power-switch to completely-loaded-fully-functional-desktop in 18 seconds. No HDD light flickering after that point. it was in memory, and ready for work. (This was in the days when Windows took several minutes to boot on 486 class hardware.)

I have a fever and the only cure is more cowbell.

:mrgreen:

Clearly the solution is to bombard your system with neutrinos, while extending a tachyon field around it. That should speed things up. That, or more cowbell…..

[quote post=”2445″]Ultimately login-to-desktop is such a minor part of using a computer for most users, I think it’s making a mountain out of a molehill.[/quote]

That’s probably true. Then again, the secretaries over here ALWAYS shut down their computers for the night. I mentioned that they could just leave them on so that they don’t have to reboot in the morning, and that it’s not really bad for the computers to stay on but they didn’t believe me. :P

[quote post=”2445″]when you typed “inherit”, I think you meant “inherent”.[/quote]

Sigh… I really need a context aware spellcheck. ;)

[quote post=”2445″]P.S. When are you going to go on a BSG rant? THAT I could contribute to. D[/quote]

When I finally catch up with the show. I missed like the 4 last episodes and I need to watch them before I can get back into the BSG topic. :(

As usual, I have nothing to add to the technical discussion, so I am limited to pointing out that when you typed “inherit”, I think you meant “inherent”. ;)

P.S. When are you going to go on a BSG rant? THAT I could contribute to. :D