Desktop icons...are they lagging my start up?
By coffeebreak
@coffeebreak (17798)
United States
December 21, 2010 9:33pm CST
I have alot of icons to sites on my desktop. I use some of them often, others not so often, but want them there instead of searching through book marks. Does haveing them there on my desktop as a shortcut feature, make my computer log on to the internet slower? I have been having a problem in that when I boot up...it literally takes about 5-7 minutes to be able to get on my home page. I use Mozilla Firefox browser.
I have been told that they only thing that causes it to be slow is that it has alot of things on the "start up" menu and all those things have to "startup" every time. However, I have gone to my start up menu and there is not that much there. Just the main things I know I need. I am not a computer geek, but know some about what I am doing (wish I could be a geek!) I don't download ton of stuff..hardly anything. I just have the basic stuff. I have Win XP.
My kids insist that if I get rid of all those icon shortcuts on my desk top, it will speed up the boot up. I keep telling them it won't...they just need to be a little patient cause they will click on the internet browser nutton and if it don't come up in the instant they think it should, they will click again...and again...and again. Today my daughter clicked it 8 times and then got mad it was taking so long. I told her that every time she clicked the browser icon, that it would start that browser again and that just makes it take longer to be able to get to a home page. Took about 7 minutes, to get to the home page, and there were (in that side bar where it goes when you minimize) 5 Mozilla home pages and 2 IE home pages open. I told her not to even use IE on mine (she uses it on hers) as I dont' use it and it is old..and told her to use Mozilla.
So...does having a lot of desktop icons make it power up/boot up slower? Or have any effect at all on it? I did go and delete some when I got on just now, so I'll see if it makes any difference or how much....what do you say?
2 people like this
3 responses
@mrblur94 (57)
• Singapore
22 Dec 10
try defragging or deleting the unwanted memory on the hdd. computers do lack as the ROM may be clouded with unnecessary instructions to boot unnecessary memory. but make sure you delete before you defrag. also, old computers tend to start up slowly as he parts inside actually do wear and tear.
2 people like this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
22 Dec 10
I do defrag regularly. How do I delete unwanted memory? I have not heard about that. could be my problem
@mrblur94 (57)
• Singapore
24 Dec 10
all windows come with a "disk clean up" thingy. it deletes files you have not used in a long time. its under START ALL PROGRAMS ACCESSORIES SYSTEM TOOLS DISK CLEANUP. maybe you can shift some files in an external hard disk drive and away from the computer. this will help with the speed of the startup process. the main thing is just to get as much memory as possible out of the internal hard disk. try to upgrade the RAM in your CPU too. i have heard stories about speeding up your start-up although i am only taught that RAM increases the speed when multi-tasking.
1 person likes this
@shaileshrm (256)
• India
31 Dec 10
basically if you have collected a lot of data in c drive then that would cause a little slow down of your computer but having icons on the desktop should not cause the much lag or shoudnt slow down your computer because icons uses some of its graphics capability to display the images but it is very less and one would never be able to measure the difference.
1 person likes this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
31 Dec 10
Thanks. I thought that they didn't matter unless I opened them. My kids both complain that mine is so slow to boot and connect when they come over to use it real quick and they both complain about how many icons I have on the desk top...some are for their kids to play when they come over, others are job search engines and other things I use more commonly. BUt they swear if I take them off...speed will be better. I did take some off but still..hasn't helped anything.
@Astroboy13 (57)
• Philippines
22 Dec 10
Although icons are only small files, their image still use your RAM so maybe it contributes to the lag. But if you have many start up items, they cause more lag.
1 person likes this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
22 Dec 10
I have lot of icons, but I have checked my start up menu and I don't have that much there. The only thing I know of that I wanted started up at start up is my anti virus. At least as far as I know of things that need to start up! The other things that are there are I believe basic for actual start up. There were only about 5 things listed.
