# Is there software that can monitor a windows startup to tell me what the computer is up to? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 5, 2010, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-software-that-can-monitor-a-windows-startup-to-tell-me-what-the-computer-is-up-to/563045 "2010-12-05T17:45:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-software-that-can-monitor-a-windows-startup-to-tell-me-what-the-computer-is-up-to/563045/1 "2010-12-05T17:45:16Z")
My home computer has a problem whereby the screen stays black for about a minute and a half after logging in (typing my password and pressing enter). This thread is NOT to ask for help with that problem. It is to ask if anyone knows of a piece of software that is capable of monitoring what the computer is doing (what drivers are loading and how long it is taking them to do it) during this period between switching it on and it being usable. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-software-that-can-monitor-a-windows-startup-to-tell-me-what-the-computer-is-up-to/563045/2 "2010-12-05T17:50:10Z")
Boot and startup tabs under msconfig shows everything that gets run during start up [http://netsquirrel.com/msconfig/](http://netsquirrel.com/msconfig/) Some of the process names you will have to google to confirm they are legit. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-software-that-can-monitor-a-windows-startup-to-tell-me-what-the-computer-is-up-to/563045/3 "2010-12-05T17:54:42Z")
Thanks, but I was more looking for something that actually monitors the startup - so I can get an idea of which driver loads or processes are taking so long. msconfig’s startup tab only tells me what is set to load. I’ve been through that to remove anything I don’t need, but the computer still goes black for a minute and a half after logging in. ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-software-that-can-monitor-a-windows-startup-to-tell-me-what-the-computer-is-up-to/563045/4 "2010-12-05T17:58:57Z")
I use to love watching Unix boot. There was a continuous stream of messages as processes were started. Alas things are too fast these days, and the the graphical interface comes up too soon, for this to be fun. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-software-that-can-monitor-a-windows-startup-to-tell-me-what-the-computer-is-up-to/563045/5 "2010-12-05T18:10:02Z")
You can enable boot logging. Then read the log. [http://www.computerfreetips.com/pc\_Troubleshooting/enable\_boot\_logging.html](http://www.computerfreetips.com/pc_Troubleshooting/enable_boot_logging.html) ---
**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-software-that-can-monitor-a-windows-startup-to-tell-me-what-the-computer-is-up-to/563045/6 "2010-12-05T18:25:23Z")
It’s called Event Viewer. It’s included in Windows. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-software-that-can-monitor-a-windows-startup-to-tell-me-what-the-computer-is-up-to/563045/7 "2010-12-05T18:29:50Z")
> [@Palooka](#): > > It’s called Event Viewer. It’s included in Windows. Event viewer seems to mention when things start, but not how long they take. ETA: Also, I’m getting the message ‘Event Log service is unavailable. Verify that the service is running.’ ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-software-that-can-monitor-a-windows-startup-to-tell-me-what-the-computer-is-up-to/563045/8 "2010-12-05T18:36:09Z")
I’ve switched it back on. It was disabled. ---
**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-software-that-can-monitor-a-windows-startup-to-tell-me-what-the-computer-is-up-to/563045/9 "2010-12-05T18:38:58Z")
You’re on XP? ---
**Author:** ![IAmNotSpartacus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@IAmNotSpartacus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IAmNotSpartacus)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-software-that-can-monitor-a-windows-startup-to-tell-me-what-the-computer-is-up-to/563045/10 "2010-12-05T18:47:18Z")
[http://www.greatis.com/utilities/bootlogxp/](http://www.greatis.com/utilities/bootlogxp/) Will tell which processes are taking so long to boot, but unfortunately doesn’t give much insight into why. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-software-that-can-monitor-a-windows-startup-to-tell-me-what-the-computer-is-up-to/563045/11 "2010-12-05T20:24:22Z")
I think I finally figured out what was causing the slow startup. It’s something that’s been in place for a while but never used to be a problem. I have two PCs connected via a crossover cable. The main PC has a bunch of mapped network drives. If the second PC is not switched on, the main PC will show ‘could not reconnect’ on these drives. Now this never used to slow anything down, but I just deleted all these connections, and the black-screen delay has gone away completely. It seems like something has changed in the way windows tries to reconnect network drives… namely that it hijacks everything else and tries for a longer period before it decided it can’t reconnect. Shame, because I liked having those connections. I’ll try recreating them but without the ‘reconnect at logon’ checkbox checked.