Bootvis, MS wassup?

(I know it's a lame name but what the hell else was I gonna call it?)

September 28, 2003

The guys at MajorGeeks let me know that Microsoft recently removed the Bootvis tool from their Fast Boot / Fast Resume Design page (most other references to this program at MS have been changed or removed). The reason MS gives is:

I'm not sure what kind of game they are playing but the "Bootvis.exe is not a tool that will improve boot/resume performance for end users." is a blatant untruth. From what I understand, Windows XP runs the routines that Bootvis does every 3 days (isn't it strange that all 4 machines showed improvements even though XP is supposed to be doing this by itself?). That may be all well and good but suppose I want to put my machine in a optimized state NOW (especially if I want a clean and optimized Ghost image)? For MS to say it will not improve boot times is ....ridiculous. They may not have created this tool for end users, but it does work. It makes me wonder if there isn't another reason for removing it. We already know that MS released a second version of Bootvis for P4 machines with Hyper Threading enabled (which required a hotfix). Is there a problem with it and if so, won't the routines that XP runs by itself also run into these problems? Just a little harmless speculation. Maybe I can start another MS conspiracy theory?! But I digress....

I've provided examples from my system, and 3 other systems on my home network. One is before using Bootvis, the other is after. Keep in mind these systems have all been tweaked and  the 3 other systems have had Bootvis run on them at some time in the past. The procedure I used was Trace > Reboot >  Optimize > Reboot > Trace. The changes may not be great but they are there (I've seen MUCH larger changes). Is running Bootvis worth the 1 minute it takes? Look below and decide for yourself. MajorGeeks still has the Bootvis Tool available for download.

*note - Sept. 29th

G.Wilkinson and D.Lambe let me know that you can run the routines that Bootvis does manually w/o actually using Bootvis. D.Lambe pointed me to the LangaList wish has the info you need. Nice site. I just signed up for the newsletter!

On another note: Several readers wrote in to say that the newer version Bootvis hosed their machines (no word on if they had applied the hotfix first). Some were able to use System Restore to repair the damage, some were not. Please folks, get yourself a copy of Norton Ghost! This still leaves me with the question I posed above.

(I apologize for the size of the files but I wanted you to be able to view the details well)

My System

Before

After

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Wifes Computer

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After

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Multi-media Machine

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After

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Laptop

Before

After

comments? contact me