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westes

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Windows 8.1 Extremely Slow and CPU in Use for 30 Minutes After Cold Boot

I have a Windows 8.1 computer with 16 processor cores and 32 GB of memory that becomes slow and unusable for about 30 minutes after each cold boot of the computer.   Normally I associate this kind of long startup delay with either a virus / trojan or a bad driver.  So far the virus scanners do not find anything, although it could always be a rooted trojan.   Is there any tool I can install to see inside the kernel at startup and identify which specific driver is taking up all of the resources?

After a cold boot, when I bring up the Performance tab in Task Manager, the CPUs are pretty fully occupied, typically 40% to 60%.  When you go to the Detail tab, no application is taking up much CPU.   Almost all of the time is being spent by the kernel, which further reinforces the idea that this is a driver or virus.

I might understand why - by default - Microsoft does not monitor inside the kernel.   But it is very hard to understand why they do not offer a boot mode to fully instrument the kernel and observe the behavior of drivers inside of it.   That would slow down everything but surely in cases like this it would save the day.  If I knew which driver to uninstall I could quickly get my computer back.
Avatar of Zine Eddine Bendjaballah
Zine Eddine Bendjaballah
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Hi,

The tool you are asking for exist. it's called Windows Performance Toolkit. It's used by Microsoft Support team to troubleshoot Windows Performance issues and it's free for download

Here is tutorial on how to install and record a trace:
https://youtu.be/MYkeA8pg8iI
https://youtu.be/67q1TPCUoAo

but you can try something simple:
On the Windows startup menu, type msconfig, the go to the services tab and check "Hide the Windows services checkbox" then uncheck unnecessary third-party services.

There is also autoruns tool that shows you all that windows runs at startup

if all that won't help, then install Windows Performance toolkit and take two traces
1. a boot trace to see what's going on during the boot process:
- Run Windows Performance Recorder and check these options for the boot trace:
 User generated image
2. take a general trace when you notice your system becoming slow. uses these options:
User generated image
while recording the trace, launch an application or two (Ex: Word, chrome). So that we can see what slowdown these applications.

Compress the traces (important) and upload them on https://www.transfernow.net/

Regards,
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