Is your PC capable of more speed?
PerformanceTest 6.1
PassMark PerformanceTest is a PC hardware benchmark utility that allows everybody to quickly assess the performance of their computer and compare it to a number of standard 'baseline' computer systems.
Measuring Boot Time
Preparing a System for Boot Timing
This tutorial presents all the steps for improving and measuring boot time.
Improving "Cold Boot" Time for System Manufacturers http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/archive/fast-boot.mspx
Tracing Start-up Performance
BootVis, is described by Microsoft as a "performance trace visualization tool." BootVis allows the information obtained during a single boot to be used for optimizing the system. BootVis can no longer be downloaded directly from Microsoft. You can find it in a search on Google or use this download site
http://www.soft32.com/Download/Free/BootVis/4-19687-1.html
BootVis should be used with care as it can build a large log file if logging is not turned off after use.
For a Step-by-Step guide to using Bootvis
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-6346_11-5034622.html
Windows Vista makes it easy to measure boot and shutdown times. Open the Control Panel, then Administrative Tools, and finally the Event Viewer. In the Event Viewer tree select Applications and Services Logs, then Microsoft, Windows, Diagnostic-Performance, and Operational. Here we can find the boot and shutdown durations measured in milliseconds:
