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My PC was taking longer to boot and it had nothing to do with Windows
I knew something was off when my PC started taking longer and longer to reach the desktop. Like most people, I first tried all the usual tricks to reduce that boot time. And while managing my startup apps, I came across a small detail in the Task Manager that I had never really paid attention to before: Last BIOS time.
That’s when I realized the slow startup issue I was facing had nothing to do with Windows. The real culprit was my PC’s BIOS time, so instead of tweaking Windows, I had to focus on reducing that.
What is “Last BIOS time” and why it matters
What your PC is doing before the Windows logo appears
When you start your PC, Windows is not the first thing that loads. Before you even see the Windows logo, your computer does something critical. It loads BIOS (or UEFI) from your motherboard’s chip.
BIOS is responsible for checking that your hardware is alive and responding. It looks for your keyboard, drives, graphics card, and memory to make sure everything is working as it should. It then decides which device to boot from. Only after all of that does it load Windows and hand over control.
The “Last BIOS time” is simply a measurement of how long this opening act takes. To find it, simply open the Task Manager, head to the Startup apps tab, and check the top right corner. What makes this important is that BIOS time is not always consistent. It depends on several factors, like your hardware, connected devices, and of course, BIOS settings.
ThioJoe
LEONI
ThinkComputersThis means a slow BIOS stage could increase the overall boot time. You could have Fast Startup enabled, minimal startup apps, and everything tuned, but if the BIOS takes 20 seconds to initialize everything, your entire boot process will feel slow and sluggish.
This is why the "Last BIOS time" is such a useful clue. It helps you separate two different problems. If your BIOS time is unusually long, it means the delay is happening before Windows even started doing its part. In my case, this number was more than 25 seconds on average, which made it clear that the BIOS was the real bottleneck.
Disable boot devices that you’re not using
Stop your PC from checking what it does not need
By default, when you turn on your PC, the BIOS goes hunting for something to boot from. Of course, it checks your main drive, but it also scans through any other bootable devices like USB drives, external hard drives, network boot options, and even the old CD or DVD drive if your PC has one. All of this scanning takes time and adds a few extra seconds to your BIOS time.
Now here’s the thing. If you are like most people, you probably will never boot from a network or a disc. In that case, there's no point in your system wasting time checking those every single time you power on. You can dive into BIOS settings and disable boot devices you don’t use. This way, your PC can focus only on your main SSD or hard drive.
Since the BIOS or UEFI menus look very different depending on your motherboard and PC manufacturer, there’s no universal steps you can follow to do this. If you want to make these changes, it's best to look up a specific guide for your PC or motherboard and follow the instructions carefully.
Turn on fast boot and update BIOS
Speed up startup at the firmware level
Another way to reduce BIOS time is by enabling fast boot, not to be confused with Windows’ fast startup feature. The fast boot option lives inside BIOS, and turning it on essentially tells your system to skip some of the hardware checks during startup every time.
This can also reduce the overall BIOS time. In fact, on some PCs, fast boot comes enabled by default. However, you can always double-check your PC’s BIOS settings to make sure that’s the case. Again, the exact steps to do this can vary depending on your PC’s model and BIOS version, so you may have to dig around a bit.
Updating your BIOS can also make a surprising difference. Motherboard manufacturers regularly release BIOS updates to fix bugs, improve compatibility, and optimize performance. If you haven’t updated your BIOS in a while, that might be part of the reason your PC takes longer to start.
Don’t worry if your BIOS boot time is less than 10 seconds
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it
It’s easy to fall into the trap of chasing smaller and smaller numbers once you discover the “Last BIOS time.” But the truth is, if your BIOS time is already under 10 seconds, your system is doing just fine.
Also, different hardware behaves differently, so you really shouldn’t compare BIOS time. Some motherboards, especially those with a lot of features or connected components like multiple drives and RGB controllers, naturally take a bit longer to initialize. This does not mean there’s something wrong with your hardware or BIOS settings.
Making the above tweaks did improve my PC's overall startup time by a few seconds. That said, if your motherboard is old, tweaking the BIOS will not magically make it behave like a brand new one. At some point, you’ll hit a limit set by the hardware itself.
