Hello, I'm trying to follow this guide: http://blogs.technet.com/b/wincat/archive/2010/03/15/case-study-using-diagnostics-performance-events-as-a-desktop-health-indicator.aspx

The Diagnostics-Performance isn't in Event Viewer, is there a way to enable it? In Services, I see that "Diagnostic Service Host" and "Diagnostic System Host" are set to manual start. Would settings those services to automatic start enable this logging?

Reason I need this is to figure out why my system takes almost 2 minutes to load windows, and most of that time is spent with no hdd activity light. I rarely restart windows, only when Asus's Xonar garbage is looping the last sound frame when BF3 crashes

Thanks.

shameless bump... help please?

Soluto can do the same function you wish to perform on your R2 machine. The Diagnostics-Performance event log is missing from R2 so instead of going through the headache of trying to figure out how to get that to work, I have figured out how to get Soluto to install on Windows Server.

1. Download Application Verifier

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/de ... x?id=20028

2. Download Soluto

http://www.soluto.com/Download

3. Open Application Verifier

4. Navigate to File > Add Application

5. Browse to your downloads folder and add solutoinstaller.exe

6. On right-side uncheck Basics

7. Expand compatibility and check HighVersionLie

8. Right-click HighVersionLie and choose Properties

9. In Product type put "1"

10. Click OK

11. Click Save and exit Application Verifier.

12. Launch solutoinstaller.exe

13. Install the application. Once it is installed it will ask you to reboot so it can perform a boot diagnostics. This utility will tell you how long each process/file on your machine is taking to load... for example it will tell you that your AV took 13 out of 52 seconds of your boot time and so forth.

Once you have figured out what application was hanging up your boot time, uninstall soluto because it will slow down your system because every time you reboot it performs a diagnostic and you don't want that. I couldnt see any option to disable it on boot it always pops on. You can disable the solutoservice in Services console if you need to keep the application.

As a side note I thought I would share my procedure on how I was able to get a sub-30 second boot time on my machine. Keep in mind this is a sub-30 second boot time with AV, VMWare, and no startup applications or services disabled on boot time.

1. Install Windows Server 2008 R2

2. Install Desktop Experience, Windows Server Backup, .NET Framework, Wireless LAN features.

3. Install Graphics and Audio software drivers.

4. Install ESET NOD32 AV Business Edition for Windows Server (w/trial reset patch)

5. Using R2 Conv GUI install Superfetch service. Reboot.

6. In command prompt:

sc config sysmain start= auto
sc start sysmain
sc config defragsvc start= auto
sc start defragsvc
cd \windows\prefetch
echo [OptimalLayoutFile] > Layout.ini
rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks

7. Check C:\Windows\Prefetch\Layout.ini to see that prefetch has been built. Reboot PC.

8. Download Auslogics Disk Defrag utility. Perform initial disk defrag.

9. Enable Readyboost via patches here:

viewtopic.php?p=8795#p8795

First launch readyboost.reg, then launch Superfetch.reg

10. Insert USB flash drive to be used for Readyboost.

Right-click on flash drive and choose Properties. Initially readyboost will say that device is incompatible,but you simply hit test again and it will pop up. Next "dedicate" the entire device to readyboost.

11. Reboot 3 times or so to see noticeable improvement in boot time and application start up performance. One thing I noticed was how instant Internet Explorer loaded once I configured my desktop with the above tweaks. Before it took like 10 seconds to startup now when I logon to my desktop its like *BAM* INSTANT! Also another factor to my sub-30 second boot even with all my applications installed and Windows fully patched is the fact that I have ESET installed. It is the lightest of any running AV I have tested... AVIRA, AVAST!, AVG (through OS license hack), Microsoft Security Essentials, etc all downgraded the performance of my machine. Switching your AV to ESET alone would probably shave a good 7 seconds off your boot time. Atleast on my machines (quad core 8GB desktop + 3GB dual core laptop) it made a noticeable difference.

Thank you thank you thank you!!! Followed your steps and I found the culprit, it's some Windows Live garbage that I had to install in order to play DiRT 2. uninstall.exe here I come, I wasn't even aware of this service because every time I go to msconfig I check "hide all microsoft services". Thanks again, very much appreciate the help!

edit: The reason it takes 53 seconds is because I run pfSense router in VMWare, it just shocks me that any human would decide to let their program hog an entire minute to keep trying to logon to the internet when the client doesn't have internet access

So how is your boot time now?

Chopped down from 6 minutes to 1:30; according to Soluto (I decided to keep this nifty app ) the windows files takes 30 seconds and I can't figure out why... most of the time "loading" windows is spent with almost no HDD activity at all. I'm tired of reformating every season, so I'm not gonna go that route again just to speed things up. I tried sfc scan, that didn't change anything. I don't suppose booting into a Linux and copying over fresh Windows files would help my speed would it? Disk defrag reports 0% fragmentation, and I'm running a seagate 1tb 7200.12 for windows and raid 0 wd black 640gb sata3 for apps and games.

I can definitely live with 1:30, it's much more tolerable

I would highly recommend readyboost it has certainly made the overall startup of my applications (like when i first turn my PC on in the morning) more snappier. You gotta love a 24 second boot on a SERVER with AV and VMware!

I'm gonna install readyboost on my laptop, it's already quite zippy at around 40 seconds given it's a fairly fresh install. I'm not gonna install it on my desktop though, readyboost I think is great for workstations that turn on and off daily but my computer is 24/7 since it also runs my router and a virtual server. The only time I restart is when stuff starts bugging out for whatever reason, or a power outage, don't think installing readyboost would be worth the 30 seconds saved heh