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What is Clean Boot?
A clean boot is a troubleshooting technique that involves starting up a computer with a minimal set of drivers and startup programs. By doing so, you can isolate and diagnose issues that may arise from conflicting software, drivers, or settings. Clean booting can be particularly useful when troubleshooting problems such as random crashes, slow performance, or software conflicts.
Procedure of Clean Boot:
To perform a clean boot on a Windows computer, you need to follow these steps:
1. Open the System Configuration utility: Press Windows Key + R, type “msconfig,” and hit Enter.
2. Go to the General tab: Here, you’ll find the option to select the “Selective startup” mode.
3. Disable startup items: Uncheck the “Load startup items” box. This step ensures that only the essential services are loaded during startup.
4. Disable non-Microsoft services: Navigate to the Services tab, check the “Hide all Microsoft services” box, and then click on the “Disable all” button.
5. Selective enable startup items and services: To identify the root cause of the issue, enable one or a few startup items or services at a time and restart the computer. Repeat this process until the problem reoccurs, identifying the conflicting software or service.
6. Return to normal startup: If the issue is resolved after enabling a particular startup item or service, you can return to normal startup by re-enabling all the items.
Application of Clean Boot to Troubleshooting:
A clean boot is an effective method to troubleshoot both software and hardware-related issues. Here are some scenarios where clean booting can prove helpful:
1. Software conflicts: When multiple programs on your computer conflict with each other, leading to crashes or software dysfunction, a clean boot can help identify the conflicting software.
2. Startup issues: If your computer takes a long time to start up or encounters errors during the startup process, clean booting can help identify the problematic startup items or services causing the delays or errors.
3. Performance problems: Slow performance or excessive resource usage can be caused by background processes or conflicting software. Clean booting allows you to pinpoint the specific culprit affecting your computer’s performance.
4. Driver issues: Faulty or conflicting drivers can lead to various hardware problems. By performing a clean boot, you can determine whether the issue is caused by a problematic driver.
5. Malicious software: If your computer is infected with malware or spyware, a clean boot can help isolate the issue by preventing unnecessary software from running during startup.
In conclusion, a clean boot is a valuable troubleshooting technique for identifying software conflicts, startup issues, performance problems, driver issues, and malware infections. It allows you to narrow down the cause of computer problems and take appropriate actions to resolve them.
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