startup icons bottom right corner

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Guest

How/where do I go to remove the programs from the bottom right hand corner,
near the time, that automatically start up when I turn on the computer.

Thanks
 
Tom said:
How/where do I go to remove the programs from the bottom right hand
corner, near the time, that automatically start up when I turn on the
computer.
Click to expand...




First, note that you should be concerned with *all* programs that start
automatically, not just with those that go into the tray. Not all
autostarting programs manifest themselves by an icon in the tray.

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.
 
Ken Blake said:
First, note that you should be concerned with *all*
programs that start automatically, not just with those
that go into the tray. Not all autostarting programs
manifest themselves by an icon in the tray.

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.
Click to expand...

Ken, I realize you're a nice guy with a lot of experience,
but don't you think, to be fair and honest, it's worth
mentioning that it's often easier to live with these icons?

Dan Gookin's most recent _Windows for Dummies_ book says,
like you, that some of these applications can be fairly
easily stopped from automatically launching by going to the
startup properties pages some offer. Subsequently, and again
like you, he tells people to use MSCONFIG. You uncheck the
appropriate MSCONFIG boxes, and all's better, sort of. One
pretty consistently gets a warning, upon startup, from
MSCONFIG that something's loused up. So one often trades one
eyesore and pain for another. IIRC Gookin concludes that
often there is nothing that can be done (or nothing can be
done easily) about these system tray icons. The final
counsel seems to be to not let it bother you.
 
Elle said:
Ken, I realize you're a nice guy with a lot of experience,
but don't you think, to be fair and honest, it's worth
mentioning that it's often easier to live with these icons?
Click to expand...


Well, I think the answer is, as it is in so many places, it depends. These
are not just "icons," in the sense that shortcut icons are.. If you don't
use a shortcut icon, it doesn't hurt you. But these icons represent programs
running in the background. And when a program runs, it uses up some of the
CPU power and RAM available, and that in turn can decrease your overall
performance, often substantially..

Sure, some of these can have such a minor effect of performance that you
will never notice them. Others can affect performance greatly. That's why I
say "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." I'm not of the school
of thought that says "get rid of all your background programs," and I'm not
of the school of thought that says "just ignore (live with) everything."
Yes, it takes some effort to determine what to keep and what not to keep,
but the person who isn't willing to make some effort to keep his computer
running well will quickly get into all kinds of trouble.

Dan Gookin's most recent _Windows for Dummies_ book says,
like you, that some of these applications can be fairly
easily stopped from automatically launching by going to the
startup properties pages some offer. Subsequently, and again
like you, he tells people to use MSCONFIG. You uncheck the
appropriate MSCONFIG boxes, and all's better, sort of. One
pretty consistently gets a warning, upon startup, from
MSCONFIG that something's loused up.
Click to expand...


Nope, it doesn't have to be "pretty consistently." You don't need to see it
more than once. Just tell it not to show you the message again and it won't.
And it's not "loused up" at all. It's simply reminding you that you've
disabled something and haven't told it that you want to leave it that way.

So one often trades one
eyesore and pain for another.
Click to expand...


I don't agree. There's no tradeoff like this at all. It's *extremely* easy
to get rid of the message. You can even not get the message in the first
place by using any of the several freeware alternatives to MSCONFIG.

IIRC Gookin concludes that
often there is nothing that can be done (or nothing can be
done easily) about these system tray icons.
Click to expand...


He's entitled to that opinion. I completely disagree. Except for some
malware programs, stopping background programs from running is almost always
extremely easy. MSCONFIG is only one of several tools that can do it easily.
The only part that can be difficult is making the decision of what to keep
and what not to. That often takes some research, but it's necessary.


The final
counsel seems to be to not let it bother you.
Click to expand...


If that's Gookin's final counsel, once again he's entitled to that opinion.
I never buy and never recommend "... for Dummies" books because I find
their titles insulting, but in this case, if that's what this one says, I
won't recommend it because of its poor content. Some of these things can
have a big effect on performance, and taken together, the mishmash of
background programs running on many people's computers (again, I'm talking
about *all* the background programs, not just those that manifest themselves
by an icon in the System Tray) can have an *enormous* effect on performance.
 
Elle said:
Dan Gookin's most
Click to expand...
snip stuff not applicable to Windows XP; my mistake.

Gookin says in "PCs for Dummies" that Windows XP has solved
the display problem as follows:

1. Click in the Taskbar notification area at the bottom (do
not click on any icon).
2. Choose Properties
3. Click the Customize button
4. To hide an icon, click to select it.
5. Choose "always hide."
6. Repeat for any other icons you don't want to see.
7. Click "okay," etc.

I am not clear on whether the OP actually wants to stop
programs running or whether he wants to simply improve the
appearance of his desktop.
 
Ken Blake said:
If that's Gookin's final counsel,
Click to expand...

I was wrong about his counsel re Windows XP. Interested
readers should see my other post in this thread today.

Also, I had in mind that the display of these icons was the
problem, not so much the running of certain programs in the
background. The OP can clarify.
 
Elle said:
I was wrong about his counsel re Windows XP. Interested
readers should see my other post in this thread today.

Also, I had in mind that the display of these icons was the
problem, not so much the running of certain programs in the
background. The OP can clarify.
Click to expand...


OK. Displaying of icons is trivial. The efffect on performance of the
running programs those icons represent is often *not* trivial.
 
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