Controlling what starts at Power on?

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Guest

I have a new computer and there is a bunch of stuff that starts when I Power
on or Change Users. I do I control/delete what starts or does not?
 
Thu, 15 Dec 2005 14:09:39 -0800 from Uncle Dave
I have a new computer and there is a bunch of stuff that starts when I Power
on or Change Users. I do I control/delete what starts or does not?
Click to expand...

First, carefully check the settings in each program. Many of them
have preferences to let you control this.

Then, for the rest, use Autoruns from
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/autoruns.shtml
Right-click on anything you have questions about, and you can
research it with Google. Uncheck anything you're sure you don't need.
(You need to be logged in as administrator to do this for anything
that starts when Windows starts, which is most autorun programs.)

You cold do that with Msconfig just as well. Msconfig is part of
Windows, but the Autoruns interface is a lot better.
 
Uncle said:
I have a new computer and there is a bunch of stuff that starts when
I Power on or Change Users. I do I control/delete what starts or
does not?
Click to expand...


On each program you don't want to start automatically, check its Options to
see if it has the choice not to start (make sure you actually choose the
option not to run it, not just a "don't show icon" option). Many can easily
and best be stopped that way. If that doesn't work, run MSCONFIG from the
Start | Run line, and on the Startup tab, uncheck the programs you don't
want to start automatically.

However, if I were you, I wouldn't do this just for the purpose of running
the minimum number of programs. Despite what many people tell you, you
should be concerned, not with how *many* of these programs you run, but
*which*. Some of them can hurt performance severely, but others have no
effect on performance.

Don't just stop programs from running willy-nilly. What you should do is
determine what each program is, what its value is to you, and what the cost
in performance is of its running all the time. You can get more information
about these at http://castlecops.com/StartupList.html. If you can't find it
there, try google searches and ask about specifics here.

Once you have that information, you can make an intelligent informed
decision about what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of.
 
I have noted the same on mine and I find that the best thing to do is to
ignor it. For some reason MS built it in. One of the things I hate about
the home PC is that it has too much stuff in it! Most of which you don't use
and probably will never use Uncle Dave! by the way I'm am known as Uncle
Dave too! LOL I have been around this stuff now for a little over 3 years
and much of it is a mystery. Just keep updates up and keep always your
securty up on virus protection and spyware and get as much out of the
blankity blank thing you can. It is a good tool but I feel over done! Just
don't worry about the all the stuff that starts some of it you can stop
seeing by right clicking over the icon next to the clock and hit exit. left
lick in line at the bottom Quick Launch and properties click hide inactive
icons and then they will not been seen in bottom unless its something your
using! The problem with computers is they speak in icons and in there
language only and never give good instructions! I find you learn a lot just
by doing and half of that you will forget! LOL

Good Luck
 
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