Using minLogon to speed up booting and decrease footprint - Page 9

momanz · 12-18-2004, 12:55 PM

I finally tried this out and got my bootvis times down from 30-32 seconds to 14-17 seconds...Impressive... the bad news is that bootvis is no longer showing/recording the boot activity data so I no longer know which components of the boot process are taking longest. Anyone else have this problem and manage to fix it?

SFiorito · 12-18-2004, 01:02 PM

Yeah, unfortunately that seems to be one of the side effects of minlogon. I would recommend to run bootvis trace as the last thing you do before minlogon (after you install all your drivers, apps, etc.) so then you can see what's slowing you down, take care of it, then install minlogon.

rando · 12-18-2004, 06:24 PM

If someone could document the steps they followed (i.e. create Nlite XP install with options x/y/z removed, ran bootvis x times, defragged, ...) to create 14s cold boots, I think that person would be a hero in the carpc community.

Using an NLite Xp image (my nlite config was posted a few pages back or in another thread -- can't remember which) with SP2 slipstreamed and minlogin, I was able to get ~19s on my m10k. That's about 11s faster than what I used to get!

QuickCarl · 12-18-2004, 06:27 PM

OK, to start off,thanks for the discussion of a great topic.

Now I need help. I'm normally pretty good at reading a following directins, even comlicated ones. But, I'm stumped. I am running Win XP Pro SP2. Nothing else remarkable. I am not running EWF so I shouldn't need to turn it off or worry about it.

I want to use the directions from the first post to change my system to use minlogon.exe. Porblem is that I can't delete winlogon.exe or rename minlogon.exe.... My guess is that it is WFP which I tried to turn off...(using SFCDisable = 1 in the registry)

Can anyone help?

SFiorito · 12-18-2004, 08:24 PM

Unfortunately the SFCDisable by itself doesn't work anymore with SP2. You actually need to get a hexeditor and modify one of the sfc dlls (do a google on it). The other option is what I talked about up above: run "sfc /purgecache" and "sfc /cachesize=0" and then try. I've been able to switch minlogon without disabling SFC. Just make sure you follow my directions. RENAME winlogon.exe, rather than deleting it.

momanz · 12-18-2004, 09:32 PM

Yea... I tried to disable WFP and it just wasn't working for me either (XP-SP2). What did work is changing backup copy of winlogin.exe to something else (don't delete it incase you want to restore things). It's located in the C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache folder which is hidden. Before you modify sfc_os.dll try changing renaming winlogin.exe in the cache folder and see if that works. I actually did use the hex modify procedure, but windows was still copying the backup file. Once I renamed the the backup file I started getting the WFP errors that people have described in this thread. When the error came up all I did was hit cancel and continue with the procedure originally and it worked. 14 sec boots! Hibernation is still a bit faster though :-( If only I could launch frodo while the services are loading... hmmm maybe I'll look into that next.

By the way, I am not using NLite... Yet...

-momanz

QuickCarl · 12-19-2004, 08:26 AM

Dangit, this is *****ing me off.

Renaming the Winlogo.exe file in the dllcache directory looks like it will work, but doesn't. It creates the reanamed file, but when I go to the \system32 directory and delete or rename (deletion is necessary because it keeps showing back up after renaming) winlogon.exe, the system doesn't copy over the renamed file from \dllcache... it copies over winlogon.exe from somewhere AND winlogon.exe magically shows up in the \dllcache directory too.

I don't have a hexeditor to screw around with the dll's with and I'm not quite sure how to 'run' the sfc /purgecache and cachesize=0 stuff that you refer too....

[EDIT] Just ran the sfc commands atthe comand line prompt, but the winlogon.xex file continues to magically show up whether renamed or deleted.

[EDIT 2] It should be noted that if you turn the sfc cache off you need at some point to turn it back on. At the command prompt type "sfc/?" for a run down of the appropriate setting. I did a /scannow and then a /revert... WFP compained that I had some file(s) that were wrong and asked for my WinXP disc... I cancelled... Upon reboot I hung, nothing worked to coroect it, until I just chose to boot in safe mode, then rebooted. Still stuck with the regular Winlogon.exe though.

SFiorito · 12-19-2004, 11:11 AM

I don't know what to tell you guys.

I'm not the only one that has successfully accomplished this. I just want to make sure: you run "sfc /purgecache", "sfc /cachesize=0", then RENAME winlogon.exe, wait a few seconds to see what happens, then copy minlogon.exe over? I know one time it recreated winlogon.exe, but I was still able to copy minlogon.exe over and it stayed. If you simply delete it SFC will correct it automatically.

FetLyd · 12-19-2004, 12:28 PM

this sfc stuff is with SP2, right?

SFiorito · 12-19-2004, 12:31 PM

SP1 and SP2

SlashEMc2k · 12-19-2004, 03:03 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by rando

If someone could document the steps they followed (i.e. create Nlite XP install with options x/y/z removed, ran bootvis x times, defragged, ...) to create 14s cold boots, I think that person would be a hero in the carpc community.

Using an NLite Xp image (my nlite config was posted a few pages back or in another thread -- can't remember which) with SP2 slipstreamed and minlogin, I was able to get ~19s on my m10k. That's about 11s faster than what I used to get!

Any hereo s out there??
25s cold boot ATM without Nlite so far.
With help following Sfioritos docs ..

QuickCarl · 12-19-2004, 04:09 PM

SFiorito - that is exactly what I did. No joy. Can't copy over, nor delete. Winlogon.exe magically reappears no matter what. And I did the purgecache and cachesize that you listed.

This is really starting to make me angry.... you wouldn't like me when I'm angry

SFiorito · 12-19-2004, 04:59 PM

Only other option I can think of is using a bootdisk and copying the file that way. Not sure if that will trick SFC or not. Only issue is you need to make your registry changes first, then reboot with the bootdisk, copy file, then reboot into XP. Make sure you have a recover strategy in case it don't work!!!

QuickCarl · 12-19-2004, 05:15 PM

I think that might work, pretty sure that WFP won't be a problem then.. just that I am using a casetronic c134, so I only have a DVD drive. Have to boot from WinXP install CD.

It should be possible to copy all the files if they are seet up corrctly (using the recovery console)... but I'm not quite sure how to set up the two different registries and make sure that I can recover if somehting bad happens.

Nick1_S · 12-19-2004, 06:29 PM

Oh well, I am having major trouble.

I tried to rename the winlongon.exe file to winlogon.exe.bak and it would not let me do it, saying there was already a winlogon.exe file. (But i was trying to rename it to the .bak!!!). So i put it in a new folder and renamed it there no probs and then copied it back into the sys32 folder. It said do u want to write over the exisiting file - this is what i expected. So i did that and then did the reg stuff. Reboot and it comes up with the classic logon. So I have tried the recovery console and get into the prompt. I deleted the winlogin.exe and then renamed the winlogin.exe.bak to winlogin.exe (the original). Reboot, now it comes to the blue screen and shuts down straight away!! I have tried F8, safe mode, etc with no joy. I assume its coz the registry has been changed and I geuss u cant change that from the console.

Is there any way out of this apart from a new install?

cheers

Nick

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