Windows 8.1 Bootup Times

Hello all, I have a serious issue with my new laptop computer which I purchased on the 21st of December 2013. I say it's new because it's somewhat true. I've had it for less than six months. However i used it a lot and the other day I had problems with the machine slowing down and not performing as it should or how I had it when i just got it, even though several months have passed.


So I tried Glary Utilities and CCleaner but they just cleared up junk files and didn't speed up the computer. A friend of mine suggested installing and using combofix which I tried but it made things 50 times worse.
My machine takes about three minutes to start up instead of forty seconds which it did before I installed the Combofix software. It asked me to run the program in a certain mode, administrator i think which I followed as there was just one mode and that's there by default. After I installed it that's when my machine slowed down in terms of boot time instead of speeding it up and my computer overall.


I want my PC to boot up fast again. I think I need to defrag boot up settings or something like that, I don't know. I'm just grasping at straws but I have tried in the past on older machines to speed up boot times on PCs I had years ago but was unsuccessful each time. Granted, I wasn't as knowledgeable as i am now but I believe boot times can be improved without formatting the hard drive and reinstalling Windows as technology has advanced.
I am using Windows 8.1 now and I believe i have the update one along with it.

How can I speed up the boot time without formatting. By the way I tried de-selecting certain start-up programs but that didn't work. The issue is not with start-up programs. Combofix messed up my system and it didn't even open a program after I installed it so I could tweak any settings. There was no launching of an interface, it just installed and there isn't even an uninstall entry in the uninstall programs section of Windows programs in the control panel.


How do I uninstall Combofix and speed up my boot time again. I am willing to purchase any software that can speed up my boot time again and remove combofix. I need my laptop which is still relatively new to boot up fast and run fast again.

I really need help with my issues. I even tried defragging the hard drive but with no success. Please someone read this and respond. i am begging you for assistance with my Windows 8.1 computer and increase in boot time.

Combofix is a very powerful tool but like all such it requires knowledge and skill to be used safely and effectively. In the hands of a skilled surgeon a scalpel is a life saving tool but in the hands of the unskilled it is dangerous. The same with Combofix. The supplier of Combofix is well aware of this and has warnings in the instructions. But I expect these are often missed.

At this point it would be best to do a system recovery from the recovery partition. Be sure to backup all data first as recovery of the data later is difficult and may not be successful. Of course you should have such a backup anyway. This is of critical importance if your data is important to you.

Otherwise you will need help beyond my ability to provide.

I think my laptop at home has a recovery partition which essentially makes a backup of all files. It's a mechanism that Microsoft put in Windows 8 and 8.1 but how do I use it. I assume it has been backing up my files. But how do I use it to roll back my changes as I personally haven't set anything to backup to any partition. How do I roll back to before two and a half weeks ago before installed combofix?

A system recovery will restore the system to the state it was when purchased. How to do this should be in the instructions that came with the computer. The recovery partition is created by the computer manufacturer and never updated after that. ALL of your files added since then will be lost. Recovery of some may be possible but cannot be relied on. This is a rather drastic step but in this case it would be the easiest way to restore normal operation. If you had an image backup or even a backup of your data files then this would be relatively painless. Such a backup would have to be made prior to the computer developing problems. Too late for that now.

Before doing anything else you should back up all important data, if that is still possible.

To go back to before combofix try system restore and pick a date before you installed combofix. Other options are doing a reset or refresh. I would backup any files you don't want to lose to external media before doing a refresh or reset.
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/4692-system-restore-how-do-windows-8-a.html
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2293-refresh-windows-8-a.html
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2302-reset-windows-8-a.html