I used to obsess over faster boot times. Faster felt better, so I did everything possible to shave off a few seconds. Windows helps with this too, with its fast startup feature that comes enabled by default. But over time, I realized it just wasn’t worth it. Yes, it was saving me time, but it surely wasn’t worth the problems it was causing.
Fast startup doesn’t make as much difference as you think
The numbers don’t lie
Fast startup promises quicker boots, and everyone loves that, so I get why it comes pre-enabled on Windows. The only problem is, it was designed for older PCs with HDDs where the boot process could take as long as 45 seconds. That can feel like an eternity when you’re staring at a screen first thing in the morning.
Fast startup on Windows fixes that exact problem. Normally, when you shut down your PC, Windows closes everything and signs you out. That means when you turn it back on, it has to load everything from scratch.
With fast startup, though, things work a little differently. Windows doesn’t shut down all the way. Your apps are closed, and you’re signed out, but the core system session is written in the hiberfil.sys file. So when you turn your PC back on, Windows can simply read that hibernation file and boot quickly. It’s different from regular hibernation because it doesn’t save your open apps or files.
All of this makes sense, but most modern PCs and laptops come with an SSD, and on those, Windows already boots up in 15 seconds or less without fast startup. So the entire value proposition of booting your device in seconds doesn’t exactly apply.
I actually timed this. I disabled fast startup and rebooted my PC a bunch of times and compared it against boots with it enabled. The difference was, at most, a couple of seconds. My laptop boots in around 10 seconds with fast startup enabled and in 12 without it.
It causes more problems than it solves
It’s not worth the hassle
Even if you love chasing lightning fast boot times, fast startup still isn’t worth it. And most of it comes down to how the feature works. Since it prevents your PC from shutting down properly, it can cause all kinds of problems.
The biggest one is dual-booting. When Windows shuts off into a semi-hibernated state, it also locks the NTFS partition to prevent data corruption. That makes sense, but it also stops your other OS from mounting that drive. If you dual boot Linux alongside Windows, this alone is a reason to ditch fast startup.
It also gets in the way of BIOS and system updates. Since installing those typically requires a complete shutdown, they may not always install on time. Fast startup essentially blocks these updates and your only option is to do a reboot. Finally, fast startup is also known to cause problems with hardware detection. Windows may fail to detect your new RAM stick or a brand-new drive. And when these problems occur, you’ll probably never think to blame fast startup, which makes it even worse.
Turning off fast startup lets my PC shut down properly
You won’t miss it
Disabling fast startup wasn’t difficult for me for two reasons. My laptop already has an SSD, so the time savings were basically non-existent. And I dual-boot, so the fast startup was actively working against me.
Opting out of a fast startup is pretty simple. Head to Control Panel > Power Options and click Choose what the power buttons do. Click Change settings that are currently unavailable, uncheck Turn on fast startup, and hit Save changes.
This one simple change helps me avoid pretty much all the problems I mentioned above. Things like dual-booting, system updates, and hardware detection are no longer an issue. Yes, my boot time went up by a couple of seconds, but I’m fine with that. A PC that shuts down and boots up the way it’s supposed to is worth a lot more to me than shaving a few seconds off a number I wasn’t even paying attention to.
Fast startup isn’t your only option
Fast startup isn’t the only thing that can bring down the boot time. Sometimes, PCs with an SSD can also struggle with longer boot times and the answer usually comes down to a long list of startup apps. If there are close to a dozen apps configured to run every time you turn on your PC, they can all drag the boot times. The obvious fix here is to disable startup apps you don’t need.
Another thing you can do is enable fast boot from the BIOS setting. This essentially shortens the hardware initialization process that happens as soon as your PC boots. It skips some of the checks that normally run on things like keyboards, drives, and other peripherals before handing things off to the OS.