If you find that Windows Vista keeps freezing on startup, then you should know the real reason behind it. Even if your PC meets the hardware requirements of Vista, it is possible that the OS could be causing the machine to slow down considerably.
Windows Vista is a computer operating system that was released by Microsoft in 2007, and it was widely believed at the time that it would overtake Windows XP as the best Windows OS out there. Unfortunately, it did not do as well as expected and met a rather cold reception, primarily due to the many issues that plagued it, and the high amount of RAM required to run it smoothly.
Windows 7 was subsequently developed and released by Microsoft in 2009, and it soon became the widely used Windows OS, firmly edging out Vista in the process. Windows Vista had some pretty neat features at the time of its release, and its focus was on increasing the system wide search capabilities of a PC and also improve the security benefits, but one of the most common problems that it caused was the slowing down of the machine, thanks to the various processes that needed to be run in the background, and the graphics that were present on the home screen of the PC that ran it.
Why Vista Freezes Up
This is the most common complaint that people have had against Windows Vista, and there are several reasons behind this. The hardware requirements for a PC to run it smoothly were set pretty high, and this ultimately proved to be its downfall. Microsoft announced that almost all computers will be Vista Capable before the OS released, but their prediction was way off the mark. In order to simply run it a computer needed 15GB free space on the hard disk, at least 512MB RAM, an 800 MHz processor, DirectX 9.0 capable graphics card. Microsoft wrongly assumed that all computers will meet these requirements.
Moreover, even if a computer had these requirements, it would not be enough to run Vista smoothly. Simple multitasking took ages, and opening new windows took close to a minute which proved to be very frustrating indeed. It is amazing how Microsoft made such a big blunder and were let off the hook rather easily.
In order to run Vista (and its high graphics Aero Interface) smoothly, one needed a 1GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 15GB free space, and at least a 128MB DirectX 9.0 capable and WDDM 1.0 driver supporting graphics card. Computers with these specifications were termed as Vista Premium Ready and these were the machines that did not face any problems while running Vista.
It has been found that Vista keeps freezing from time to time on older machines that do not meet these specifications, and these machines face many other problems along the way as well. In addition to putting up with annoyingly slow speeds, the user would also have to deal with the machine taking close to 5 minutes to startup. In the computer world, this was akin to suicide. In fact, slow startup speeds was the single biggest factor why Windows Vista was soon discarded by anyone who used the OS.
Windows Vista Keeps Freezing on Startup
Several solutions were suggested for this problem, but none of them worked effectively. The single biggest solution that we can recommend to you, if you are still using Windows Vista and are facing this problem, is to insert a larger RAM chip in your machine and increase the free space on your hard drive. If you own a desktop then you can change the graphics card as well and get a more capable one, but all this will come at a pretty large expense. It would be far simpler to simply change the OS, and opt for Windows 7, or even Windows XP, instead.
Other solutions include running a disk defragmentation utility which will clean up your disk and provide temporary relief from this problem, running a Windows Registry cleaning software which will also speed up the machine for some time, installing an effective anti-virus software in the machine and making use of the System Restore facility. Keep in mind though, that all of these are only temporary solutions, and the real problem lies in the OS itself. If your machine does not meet the specifications mentioned above, then your computer will keep freezing (at startup or otherwise) from time to time.
If this problem persists excessively for you, then the best piece of advice that we can give you is to simply discard Vista and make use of Windows 7 instead. Windows 7 is a highly refined version of Vista, and it contains all the benefits of Vista, without all its deficiencies.