R
RWhite
Well-known member
Note: Some of the following info comes courtesy of the Tourbus internet newsletter ( http://www.tourbus.com/ )
As you all know, every time Windows boots up a whole slew of processes are started automatically. Many of these are required, but some are not. Some of the unnecessary ones can cause significant downgrades in system performance. And some processes that may be loaded by spyware are things you simply don’t want running on your system!
Windows 98 / ME / XP all come with a handy little utility called MSConfig. You can find this item under Accessories \ System or you can just use the RUN command prompt and type MSConfig. You can use MSConfig to do a variety of things, but perhaps most important is to check and modify which files are run on startup. What’s really handy is that it allows you to just disable these items without actually removing them, so if it turns out that something you switched off was in fact something you needed /wanted, it’s easy to turn it back on again.
However one problem is that many of these startup processes have cryptic names, making it impossible to tell whether a process is something you need or some piece of sludgeware. Even after fiddling with these items for years I don’t know them all myself! However, as frequently happens, someone out there on the web has done the hard work for us. If you go to the following web page:
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_pages/startup_full.htm
… You will find a wonderful alphabetized reference to just about everything that may appear in your MSConfig Startup section. So you can tell what is important, and what is not.
Also, while MSConfig does not appear in Win 95, NT4, or Win 2000, there are options for those users. The MSConfig applet for Windows XP supposedly works in both Win 2000 and NT4. It can be downloaded from here:
http://www.thetechguide.com/downloads.html
Also there is a PD applet that works under any version of windows from Win95 on, and has similar features to MSConfig. It can be downloaded here:
http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml
Enjoy - RW
As you all know, every time Windows boots up a whole slew of processes are started automatically. Many of these are required, but some are not. Some of the unnecessary ones can cause significant downgrades in system performance. And some processes that may be loaded by spyware are things you simply don’t want running on your system!
Windows 98 / ME / XP all come with a handy little utility called MSConfig. You can find this item under Accessories \ System or you can just use the RUN command prompt and type MSConfig. You can use MSConfig to do a variety of things, but perhaps most important is to check and modify which files are run on startup. What’s really handy is that it allows you to just disable these items without actually removing them, so if it turns out that something you switched off was in fact something you needed /wanted, it’s easy to turn it back on again.
However one problem is that many of these startup processes have cryptic names, making it impossible to tell whether a process is something you need or some piece of sludgeware. Even after fiddling with these items for years I don’t know them all myself! However, as frequently happens, someone out there on the web has done the hard work for us. If you go to the following web page:
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_pages/startup_full.htm
… You will find a wonderful alphabetized reference to just about everything that may appear in your MSConfig Startup section. So you can tell what is important, and what is not.
Also, while MSConfig does not appear in Win 95, NT4, or Win 2000, there are options for those users. The MSConfig applet for Windows XP supposedly works in both Win 2000 and NT4. It can be downloaded from here:
http://www.thetechguide.com/downloads.html
Also there is a PD applet that works under any version of windows from Win95 on, and has similar features to MSConfig. It can be downloaded here:
http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml
Enjoy - RW
