Windows – How to tell when Windows and all startup programs have completed booting

bootwindows 7

My machine (Windows 7 64-bit) takes about 3-4 mins to completely boot. Is there any way which will indicate that boot is complete, some kind of sound / pop-up, either by using Windows in-built feature or by any 3rd party application?

I require when both windows and all the startup programs have finished booting

I usually sometime sit and wait in front of the machine, that time could be better utilized for a quickie.

This is how it looks, when the hard disk light stops blinking:

enter image description here

Best Answer

There are several potentially helpful answers here, but I think there are two important points that haven't been made:

  1. No, it is not possible to programmatically determine that Windows and all startup programs have finished booting. This is essentially the Halting Problem and no program out there will be able to answer the question "For this arbitrary program, at what point should we say it has been loaded?".

  2. What is the actual problem you are trying to solve? All of the answers here attempt to find a solution to your question, but the question itself feels like it might be missing some important information. We want to solve your problem, not just answer the question.

Reading your question again and going just by what you've said, my response would be one of:

  • Just don't worry about it and start using your computer. Foreground tasks are prioritized and unless you've got something really unusual going on it shouldn't matter if background tasks are running.

Or:

  • Manually watch the system a few times and figure out the maximum amount of time it takes before the system is "ready" according to whatever metrics you have. Get a small timer program or script and add it to your system's startup. It can display a message or play a sound when the time you've chosen has elapsed.

This might not directly answer your current question, but hopefully it is helpful.

Related Question