Today, I want to introduce a piece of software that comes pre-installed on MSI products. It’s called MSI Fast Boot, and it’s used to enable faster booting times when using the computer.
To start off, we should mention what MSI Fast Boot actually does when working properly.
In its nature, MSI Fast Boot is designed to create a startup registration point in the Windows operating system to help you boot faster.
When installed, the software adds something called a “Windows Service” that continually runs in the background.
That being said, you may ask yourself:
Do I Actually Need MSI Fast Boot?
It’s not necessary to use MSI Fast Boot on your machine and it shouldn’t be anyone’s first choice when it comes down to actually improving the boot times of a PC. It’s basically a very buggy piece of bloatware that you can safely deactivate or uninstall.
Some users actually disable the service as they believe it’s useless because it doesn’t make your PC boot any faster or differently at all.
In fact, if you don’t have much knowledge about computers and just use them normally, then it makes absolutely no difference at all whether MSI Fast Boot is enabled or disabled on your system.
On a side note: If you’re experiencing constant crashes after disabling MSI Fast Boot, restarting your PC will fix those crashes.
Should MSI Fast Boot be Enabled or Disabled?
When you disable MSI Fast Boot, your computer will still work normally without any problem. Furthermore, if you try to re-enable it back again, it won’t make a difference in the boot time of your PC.
There is no point in turning MSI Fast Boot on or off because it does not do anything different when enabled or disabled. The only thing that makes any difference at all is whether or not you want the excess bloatware.
If you want to see for yourself, feel free to turn on/off the service and reboot afterwards while paying attention to what happens during startup.
If you have a good SSD; there will be no significant difference between on and off, more on that later.
How to Enable MSI Fast Boot
You can enable MSI Fast Boot by following these steps:
- Access your boot menu to update firmware settings (where you enter the BIOS/EFI). These settings can be entered by pressing a certain key during boot like F2 or F10.
- Click on the Boot icon.
- Click on the Fast Boot setting option located right in the middle of your screen.
- Enable the “Fast” or “Ultra Fast” option.
- Reboot your PC afterwards and see if it boots faster than usual.
If you’re not satisfied with MSI Fast Boot, go back into those settings again and select “Disable” instead of “Enable”.
This will disable it altogether without having any negative side effects such as crashing or bugs.
In case you want to revert your changes, simply enter the same settings again and click on “Enable” instead of “Disable” back in step 3 from above.
If something goes wrong while you’re modifying these settings, restarting your PC should fix any problems that may occur afterwards.
All in all, MSI Fast Boot adds a Windows Service that runs constantly in the background if enabled or disabled. You do not need it at all even though some people might recommend its use by saying that it reduces boot times by a few seconds especially if you’re not using a fast SSD.
How to Disable MSI Fast Boot:
You can disable MSI Fast Boot by following these steps:
- Access your boot menu to update firmware settings (where you enter the BIOS/EFI) by pressing a certain key during boot like F2 or F10.
- Click on the Boot icon.
- Click on the Fast Boot setting option located right in the middle of your screen.
- Disable the “Fast” or “Ultra Fast” option.
- Reboot your PC afterwards.
How to Uninstall MSI Fast Boot?
You can uninstall MSI Fast Boot by following these steps:
- Access your control panel from the start menu.
- Type in Add or remove programs and hit enter. You can also enter programs and features with their own shortcut in the Start Menu.
- Find MSI Fast Boot from the list of programs. Or type in the Search this list bar MSI Fast Boot.
- Click on it, then select Uninstall
- Wait for the process to finish and restart your computer afterwards.
Once again, this will not cause any problems at all if disabled or enabled back. However, it is a good idea to disable MSI Fast Boot if you want a cleaner system that is free from bloatware.
Best Alternative to Using MSI Fast Boot:
Instead of relying on MSI Fast Boot, you should upgrade your SSD to a faster model, capable of booting your PC in just a few seconds.
If you have an empty NVMe slot, you should definitely get the Samsung 980 PRO 1TB which is one of the fastest NVMe SSDs around.
It’s geared toward professionals, gamers, and enthusiasts who need high-performance storage, while working with large datasets or doing media post-production work, as well as gaming.
The 980 Pro offers super faster responsiveness when opening large files or moving around smaller ones within a larger library, as well as incredibly fast boot times, reaching read speeds up to 7,000 MB/s.
It’s also very affordable making it the best value per dollar upgrade you can make today, check it out here.
In Conclusion
MSI Fast Boot isn’t a feature you should be afraid of as it won’t cause any problems with your device. It can even be harmless to disable this service as long as you don’t have any major issues related to not having the windows background service running.