Boot diagnostics that exist already
Event Viewer → Applications and Services Logs → Microsoft → Windows → Diagnostics-Performance → Operational. Event ID 100 summarizes an entire boot with fielded timings: BootTime, MainPathBootTime, BootPostBootTime; the -x01 warning series names specific slow components with millisecond accounting.
Reading without mythology
- MainPath vs PostBoot: MainPath is to-desktop; PostBoot is the tail where startup entries race for responsiveness. A great MainPath with terrible PostBoot points to startup-app crowding (enter your impact data), not to “Windows decay.”
- Degradation delta: filters over weeks (Event Viewer custom views work) turn “feels slower since…” into a real trend line.
- Warning-ID mapping: Event IDs 101–110 sort by subsystem; 109/110 point to driver-level stupidity only admins can fix — assuming you'd benefit from a per-account fix is the fiction the tuning industry sells.
Ten minutes with these logs replaces $40 of magic with $0 of statistics. The repair plan comes from measurement — the only honest order.
ProofTune ProjectEngineering notes — every claim here names the bytes a real tool touches. Verify first, install second.