I have looked at all of the recommended and have eliminated things in
Startup to 2 items.
What is "startup"?
Use a startup scanner like HijackThis,
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3155.html
Run it, choosing to do a scan and save a logfile if unsure
of some items. If that logfile is reasonably sized, you
could include it in your post. There are also web forums
where the members are practiced in examining HijackThis
logs, would be more familiar with some of the more esoteric
software that the OEMs bundle.
You'd also need to mention what functionality you *need*.
For example, many consumer grade printers or winmodems will
load something that may (or may not) be in your Taskbar
tray, and if you need the functionality you have to let that
program load. Other times you might need a base
functionality but not some of the extra stuff you never use.
For example, if your video card driver loads a hotkeys hook
(which allows certain keyboard combination to change driver
settings), "IF" you never use those hotkey features.
But I see nothing there about the stuff that HP loads.
The same is true for Add/Remove programs.
After cleaning out any extraneous stuff shown in HijackThis
logs, it might not hurt to scan the system for viri, adware,
etc.
Now I see LOTS of programs when I go to the taskmanager, but there is no way
to permanently to disable them. How do I go about that?
Depends on what they are... some are integral to windows and
can't (or shouldn't, again according to your system
use/needs), and others might be disabled by disabling some
of the unnecessary services Windows runs by default. Google
search for "Windows [insert version here] Services" to find
some guides towards disabling those unnecessary, but beware
that disabling anything crucial can render the system
unbootable (windows will crash and need repair installed in
those cases).
I hate to buy a new installation of windowsxp and reformat and then totally
reinstall all programs which I want to keep.
The same version XP (home?) full installation disc might
install using your systems' product key. You'd have to find
someone with this same version, but it must install using
YOUR key (typically on a sticker on the side or rear of the
case). You may also need call MS to activate it, AND as
importantly you will need to have assembled the needed
hardware drivers. Typically I'd put them in a folder ready
to install (unzipped or otherwise decompressed since that's
how OEMs usually distribute them). Another alternative that
is often better (but more work) is to get the newest drivers
per each device from the respective chipset manufacturer.
For example if your motherboard used a Via chipset, you'd
get the driver from Via, or more specifically,
http://www.viaarena.com Same for the Intel chipsets or
ATI/nVidia/whoever video, modem, sound, etc.
It's a lot more work to track down the drivers but over the
life of the system may be worthwhile to have archived,
particularly if you ever need to do a repair install of the
OS (again needing the full xp installation disc) instead of
wiping the whole partition with the OEM restore disc
(causing loss of data if you hadn't backed up everything,
but you ARE making regular backups, right?).
I guess MS will not allow me to install the original disks for winxp into
this new desktop computer, right?
Your license is for a specific version of windows,
regardless of where you get those files from.
However, by doing without the restoration disc, you not only
have to round up your own drivers for anything not
*natively* supported by windows, you also lose any other
software HP might've installed. For a desktop and a user
with their own software this usually isn't much of a loss,
as much of the OEM installed stuff is lite or old versions
and some merely trial versions. Even so, we can't know what
you find useful or of value and some things are more
proprietary like notebook power management console software.
