Re: Windows boot takes HOW long?! (Was re: [school-discuss] Re: M$ Windows 7 - probably didn't brag enough about FOSS)

[Izzy Blacklock <izzyb@xxxxxxxxx>]

15 minutes to boot does seem a little long, but not unheard of if you're 
running with roaming profiles containing lots of data.  I'm constantly 
correcting slow boot problems caused by people putting too much crap on 
their desktops or in they're Documents folder.  Both are part of the 
roaming profile and as such get copied from the server on login and back 
to it on logout.  Doesn't take a room full of computers very long to 
saturate  the available bandwidth on boot up when they're each pulling 
down half a gig or so of data.  And depending on how many computer labs 
there are, and the number of servers available, I could see a server 
having a near meltdown experience every time a new set of students logs 
into all the computers at about the same time.

Of course, this is a correctable problem, but not all that uncommon.  
The best solution is to prevent as much data as possible from landing in 
the Roaming profile.  That means changing the default behavior of Windows.

I've always thought roaming profiles were a dumb idea.  You don't need 
to copy everything back and forth from the workstation to the server all 
the time to get the login anywhere effect, and there are better ways to 
handle off-line access to files.

Just my $0.02 worth.

...Izzy

Bill Kendrick wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 05:07:21PM -0700, Marilyn Hagle wrote:
>   
> > My colleagues using Windows are waiting 15 minutes to boot up and 10
> > minutes to get into their new typing tutor program.
> >     
>
> Wow!  I know Windows boots slowly, but what kind of systems are these,
> and what version of Windows?  Is there a reason they're booting from
> scratch, rather than keeping the systems running (or suspended, when not
> being used) all day long?  Do the kids each have accounts on the systems
> that they need to log into?
>
>
> My own anecote: I had a 1 or 1.5GHz laptop at my last job, with
> WindowsXP, and it would take a few minutes to boot up and provide a
> login prompt.  Then many minutes more to log me in and get to a state
> where I could actually _interact_ with the desktop, launch
> applications, etc.  It was the time I'd spend schmoozing with
> co-workers and making myself a cup or two of coffee.
> Still not 10-15min though!
>
> And FWIW, my 1yo, 2GHz Kubuntu laptop running KDE 4.3 is slow compared to
> what I was used to with KDE 3.5 on that aforementioned work laptop, but
> still not as slow as Windows was on it.
>
> -bill!
>
>