Disable unwanted Startup program

Ohh how I hate it when I start up my computer only to wait 10 minutes while my programs load up: Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger, SnagIT, Google Desktop, my anti-virus program, SQL Server, Java virtual machine, Real Player, QuickTime player, AOL IM, Roxio CD Burning, Windows Defender, Adobe Reader…I think you get my point now…if you have tons of programs loading up that you don’t use anymore, then they are basically doing nothing but slowing your computer down and should be disabled so they don’t load automatically.

If you occasionally use the program, that’s not a problem because when you do decide to use it, clicking on it will load it up. However, all the major software writers like to load themselves up into memory immediately so that in case you use their program, it can load up quickly. This is fine for programs that you use often, but how many times a day to you open QuickTime or Adobe reader? And does 5 extra seconds really matter more than being able to logon quickly!

Disabling startup programs can greatly increase the speed of your computer and usually will not adversely affect your computer because as I mentioned earlier, the programs will be loaded automatically when you click on them. I find this model of load when needed rather than everything being loaded at once to make more sense!

Managing Startup Programs

You can manage your startup programs by going opening the System Configuration Utility. Click on Start and then Run, type in msconfig and click OK.

Click on the Startup tab and you’ll see a list of starup items as shown below:

Note: If you’re running Windows 2000, when you type in msconfig, you’ll get an error message saying that Windows could not find anything with that name! That is because Microsoft took out the msconfig feature out of Windows 2000 (even though it was in Windows 98) and then after many complaints, put it back into Windows XP!

In order to get it to work on Windows 2000, you need to download the msconfig file and place the file into the C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\ folder. Here is the link below:

http://www.perfectdrivers.com/howto/msconfig.html

The startup list has two columns: The startup program name and the startup program path. This may look a little scary and may seem as if you’ll screw up the computer if you change anything, but don’t be worried. I routinely disable all of my applications without any problems. Remember these are just applications that were installed on your computer, so disabling these programs does not affect the core operating system.

However, you may not want to disable everything; for instance, if you have anti-virus software or Google Desktop running and would like those to run. If you are not able to understand what the program is from the name, try to look at the full path.

As you can see from the list, there is a program named jusched, which makes little sense, but when you look at the path, it is obvious that this is simply the Java Runtime Environment and can be disabled.

You can also see the item realmon and it’s path reveals that it refers to the eTrust anti-virus program. I would keep this checked to ensure my computer remains protected. If you are running some other anti-virus software such as Norton or McAfee, you’ll probably see those words in the path.

If you can’t tell what a program is from it’s name or path, then try to disable it and see if it makes any difference once you re-start your computer. Most of the time I have found that these programs do not do anything very useful on the computer.

Click OK and you’ll be asked to restart the computer. When you log in, you should find the logon to be faster depending on how many items you unchecked!