Startup programs?

[Ed62]

I'm running Windows XP. How do I find programs that automatically start when the computer boots up? I think I have more starting than I would like because it's taking a little longer to start using the computer.

Ed

[pierhogunn]

start >> run >> msconfig

startup stuff is in Services and Startup tab. be careful that you don't turn off too much stuff, you don't want your computer getting too fast do you

[crokett]

msconfig for programs

Control Panel - > Administrative Tools -> Services to control services.

For instance, if you don't ever plan to share out drives on your computer you can disable the server service.

[jziegler]

A couple other things to look at. First is the startup folder (Start menu > All Programs > startup. Things like the office bar and Adobe Reader fast start are sometimes there. Also look in the system tray at all of the icons there. I've had some programs (Quicktime, for example) that run something at startup and put an icon there. Sometimes you can right click on the icon and get a settings screen that can disable running it on startup. For some of these programs, removing them at startup will make them take longer to start when you run them, but overall computer startup will be faster.

Jim

[TJG]

There are a number of utilities available from this Microsoft site. In this case, the one named AutoRuns may be what you want.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sys...tiesindex.mspx

[gabedad]

To see what's running a really good program is called hijackthis. You probably have some spyware going

http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/programs.php

[Ed62]

Thanks for all the help. I don't think it's a spyware problem because it's not super slow. It's just that I don't want it to get that way.

Ed

[chopnhack]

start >> run >> msconfig

startup stuff is in Services and Startup tab. be careful that you don't turn off too much stuff, you don't want your computer getting too fast do you

I have used that in the past, but it seems to revert once you reboot, is there a way of making the changes permanent?
Thanks

[sparkeyjames]

To see what's running a really good program is called hijackthis. You probably have some spyware going

http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/programs.php

Be very careful with hijackthis. If you delete the wrong startup you can cause things that need to startup at boot to go missing in action and the only way to get it back would be to reinstall that program.

[skipwill]

There is a 'startup control panel' here... http://www.mlin.net/ that I use.

It allows you to see what starts automatically and uncheck a box to turn it off at startup. Easy enough to revert back by just rechecking the box if you have problems.

Its free too...