Disabling XP start-up programs, How ? ? ?

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Could anyone explain to me how to turnoff programs in XP that automatically
start when you boot the computer. Older versions of Windows allowed for this
in an easy way. I can find the list of programs that automatically start up
when XP boots, but there is no allowance to turn specific start-up programs
on-or-off....How does one do this with XP?

Thanks for the help and support

irzapper
02/12/05
 
You identify each program and then go to preferences/options for the program
and uncheck any box that relates to auto starting..
 
Or use MSConfig.

C:\WINDOWS\PCHEALTH\HELPCTR\Binaries\msconfig.exe

Start|Run
Type msconfig
<Enter>
will execute it

You just untick those you don't want
--
Cheers,
Trevor L.


I choose Polesoft Lockspam to fight spam, and you?
http://www.polesoft.com/refer.html
 
Hi Robert,

There are four main ways that a proggy would automatically run at windows
startup...

1: The program has a launch icon in your startup folder. Just click
START>ALL PROGRAMS>STARTUP and see if there are any icons there.

2: As somebody else has mentioned, the program that is starting up has a
"Run at windows startup" option. Just open the program and uncheck this
option from its preferences.

3: The program has a run at startup registry entry. The easiest way to
control these is to search for a proggy like "Startup.cpl" or "Startup
Inspector".

4: It's not really a proggy but a "Service". Click START>CONTROL
PANEL>ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS>SERVICES to open the services list. Now be
careful here, you don't want to turn off a service that windows depends on
so you'll have to do some research. If you click on each entry you will get
a description of what it does. You'll notice that each one is either
"Disabled", "Automatic" or "Manual" and in addition that it has either
started or hasn't. If you click the column title "Startup Type" the will
sort by that status and the ones that you will be interested in are the ones
that are "Automatic" AND "Started".

Like I said, be careful though you could disable a service and think things
are fine but at some time down the road you do something that needs that
service and it will fail.

Here's a quick example, I don't usually use a printer so I have "Print
Spooler" disabled.

Hope that helps

Andy
 
The same applies in msconfig - start-up.. the uninitiated will often stop
stuff that really should be running.. in the past, taking things out of
start-up was seen as a panacea that would make a computer faster.. that it
does, but the fact that removing items does that only goes to show that the
computer in question simply doesn't have the resources to run decently..


--
Mike Hall
MVP - Windows Shell/user
 
In
Robert said:
Could anyone explain to me how to turnoff programs in XP that
automatically start when you boot the computer. Older versions
of
Windows allowed for this in an easy way. I can find the list
of
programs that automatically start up when XP boots, but there
is no
allowance to turn specific start-up programs on-or-off....How
does
one do this with XP?
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. 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 with 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.
 
The same applies in msconfig - start-up.. the uninitiated will often stop
stuff that really should be running.. in the past, taking things out of
start-up was seen as a panacea that would make a computer faster.. that it
does, but the fact that removing items does that only goes to show that the
computer in question simply doesn't have the resources to run decently..
Click to expand...

When running an operating system with limited resources (win9x), keeping an
eye on startup items was a vital part of system maintenance. While it
doesn't hurt to keep startup trimmed in XP (and doing so can still catch
some malware that has been installed that a user wasn't aware of), it is
not a critical mission. Seems to me that most of the people that ask this
question have just made the jump from Win9x to XP. A case of "old habits
die hard"?
 
.... and in some cases, don't die at all.. is this the first real instance of
eternal life, albeit cyber life?..

I remember the resource problem well, but it has to be said that a Win98
setup running 64mb was more susceptible to crashing out that if it were
sporting 512mb..

I was a member of a 'computer club' where this old guy and others turned up
every two weeks with problems.. and each time, he had run every demo program
on every cover diskette, had a screen full of icons, some of which were
programs installed to desktop.. add/remove was like the dragon infested land
on the other side of the mountain as far as he was concerned.. he just
deleted folders as he saw fit.. time and again, I told him to quit it until
eventually, I was the one to quit.. I couldn't cope with all of the people
there who would just not listen.. membership of the club increased
dramatically when news of a friend and I running a clinic for the 'hard of
hearing' :) spread, but as membership rose, my patience and that of my
friend slowly dissipated..

Long live the 'good old days'..

--
Mike Hall
MVP - Windows Shell/user
 
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