Manage
Your Startup Programs
Quicken
Your PC’s Pace From Start To Finish
 There
comes a time in the life of every Windows user when you notice that
your once powerful PC has become slow and sluggish. Applications that
started quickly and ran robustly don’t have the oomph they
once did.
Windows itself takes longer to load, and your PC seems to freeze or
crash more often.
Why does Windows become slower and quirkier
over time? Old age? No social life? Well, the answer may lie in the
software you install. Many applications either configure themselves or
their components to be startup
programs,
loading automatically in the background as Windows boots. These startup
programs gobble up their share of memory and other resources right off
the bat, leaving less for other applications. Thus, the more programs
in your startup routine, the more lethargic Windows is.
Many
of us are familiar with the frequent annoyance of waiting for Windows
to boot and watching various elements slowly appear on-screen,
including an enormous number of icons for our System Tray and that
irritating hourglass icon that won’t go away. Then, when
Windows is
finally ready, you discover your apps now take longer to open and run
more slowly because of the memory juggling they must do to compete with
all the startup items. Plus, as we discuss in our “Win The
Spyware
Battle” feature articles (on pages 68 to 79), some of these
startup
items are spyware and adware, which can be hazardous to your
PC’s
health because of the way they continuously hog system resources,
making Windows unstable and bringing your PC to a crawl.
The
most obvious way to see how many startup programs your system loads is
to glance at the icons sitting in the System Tray. Unfortunately, it
doesn’t end there, though; startup programs also hide in your
Windows
Startup folder, your Registry, and other sneaky places. You could
easily have two dozen startup programs without knowing it.
If
you use Windows XP/2000, you can view a list of your startup items and
see how much memory each one is using by pressing CTRL-ALT-DELETE to
open the Windows Task Manager. Choose the Processes tab and scroll
through the list of files in the first column, Image Name. Some of
these programs represent Windows services and other necessary items for
your startup. (Several of the file names probably won’t seem
familiar
to you, but we’ll discuss that aspect in a moment.) Now look
at the
fourth column, Mem Usage, to see how much memory each item is
consuming. When users add up these numbers, the total is often shocking
to many of them.
 Don’t
Start With Me
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The Windows Task Manager can show you all the startup items running on
your PC and how much memory each one is using.
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Why
do certain programs start up automatically? The reasons vary.
Antivirus, antispyware, and firewall applications start automatically
to protect you as soon as Windows loads. Some startup items, such as
toolbars, enhance your Office suite, Web browser, and other
applications. Several programs start automatically in order to go
online and make sure they have the newest updates installed. Then there
are other programs that have a big ego, so they load into memory from
the get-go just in case you need them right away—even
if you never do.
To
make matters worse, many startup programs are sly; they rarely ask for
permission to load automatically, and they usually don’t tell
you how
to prevent them from starting, either. Therefore, it’s up to
you to
find and disable the startup programs you don’t need.
Check your System Tray.
As we mentioned, the first place to look for startup items is your
System Tray. Hover your mouse pointer over each icon, and a small
window shows you the name of the program. Oftentimes, you can
right-click an icon to display a pop-up menu of commands, one of which
may be a Setup or Preferences command. If so, click that command,
search for a related option—such
as Start Up Automatically or Display Icon In System Tray—and deselect it.
Go directly to the source.
Not all startup programs appear in the System Tray, so you may have to
open the program itself to look for a Setup or Preferences command
that’ll let you deselect the appropriate startup option.
Find specific instructions. Here are a few
popular programs that muscle their way into your startup routine, along
with steps on how to stop them.
AOL 9.0—AOL
9.0 throws a few items into your startup routine, including the AOL
program and AIM (AOL Instant Messenger). A feature called Fast Start
loads AOL into memory at startup. To disable it, right-click the AOL
System Tray icon, select AOL 9.0, and choose Start-Up Settings. From
the AOL Start-Up Settings dialog box, deselect the Enable Fast Start
option, click Save, and close AOL. After you reboot, AOL will be gone
from your startup routine.
To disable AIM from the startup,
right-click its icon in the System Tray, click Preferences, select the
Sign On/Off category, deselect the Start AIM When Windows Starts
option, and click OK.
QuickTime—To
kick QuickTime out of your startup routine, open Windows’
Control Panel
from the Start menu, click Switch To Classic View (if necessary for
WinXP users), and double-click the QuickTime icon. For QuickTime
versions prior to 7.0, click the drop-down menu at the top and select
the Browser Plug-in item. Deselect the QuickTime System Tray Icon
option and close the QuickTime Settings window. For QuickTime 7.0 or
newer versions, open its Control Panel icon, choose the Advanced tab,
find the Tray Icon section, deselect the Install QuickTime Icon In
System Tray option, and click OK.
Windows Messenger—To
prevent Windows Messenger from loading at startup, right-click the
Windows Messenger icon in the System Tray and select Open to launch the
program. Open the Tools menu, click Options, choose the Preferences
tab, and deselect the first two checkboxes: Run Windows Messenger When
Windows Starts and Allow Windows Messenger To Run In The Background.
Click OK.
WinXP SP2 Security Alerts—WinXP’s
SP2 (Service Pack 2) adds a new Security Center to Automatic Updates to
notify you if you don't have any firewall or antivirus protection,
which is fine, but the Security Center also keeps "alerting" you if you
disable Automatic Updates. To turn off this notification, open Control
Panel, click Switch To Classic View (if necessary), and double-click
the Security Center icon. From the Security Center window, click the
last option in the Resources list on the left: Change The Way Security
Center Alerts Me. Then, deselect the option for Automatic Updates.
Msconfig
To The Rescue
Not all startup programs provide a way to disable them, either.
Thankfully Windows includes the System Configuration Utility—also known as Msconfig—to hunt down your
startup items.
Open the Start menu, choose Run, type msconfig
in the Open field, and click OK. Choose the Startup tab, where
you’ll
see a list of all your startup items. Each entry reveals the name of
the startup file, the directory path for the command itself, and the
Registry key or other location where the item is stored. Scroll down
the list and review each startup item and its command path. Typically,
either the name or the command path will reveal which program the entry
represents.
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With the System Configuration Utility, you can view and disable any of
your startup programs.
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While
viewing your startup items in the System Configuration Utility,
you’ll
hopefully find a few you know you can disable. To prevent an item from
loading, deselect its checkbox (to be safe, only disable one item at a
time), and click OK. Windows will then ask if you want to restart your
PC or exit without restarting; click the Restart button. After Windows
reboots, a message appears to confirm that you’ve made
changes to the
way Windows starts and asks if you want to display this message each
time Windows loads. Elect not to display the message and click OK. In
addition, make sure you don’t see any error messages when
Windows
starts, and then launch the program related to the startup item you
just disabled to be certain it still runs properly.
If you
see an error message or the program doesn’t run smoothly, you
can
enable it again. Open the System Configuration Utility, choose the
Startup tab, and scroll to the bottom of the list. The System
Configuration Utility usually retains entries for startup items you
disable, so all you have to do is select a startup item’s
checkbox to
re-enable it.
What’s
A Ctfmon Or A Ccapp?
If
you weren’t able to identify some of your startup items
because their
obscure names didn’t give you a clue as to what they did, you
can use
various resources online to see what information they have. Or, even if
you know what a certain program does, you might want to check these
resources to determine if it’s safe to disable a particular
item from
your startup routine. The following Web sites have databases of startup
items that you can use to identify them and determine which ones you
can safely disable.
Startup Applications List From Pacman’s Portal
sysinfo.org/startuplist.php
Paul
Collins (aka Pacman), a British engineer, runs this site and maintains
its more than 10,000 startup items. You can browse the names of startup
programs or search for specific ones by file name. Pacman describes the
startup item and recommends whether you can safely disable it. The site
also names spyware and adware that may be lurking in your startup
routine.
Startup Application Knowledge Base
www.windowsstartup.com/wso
This
site provides information on more than 6,000 startup items with
detailed descriptions and advice. You can browse through the list or
easily search for files by name. Plus, this site also lists known
spyware and adware.
ProcessLibrary.com
www.processlibrary.com
Here’s
another site where you can search for or browse the names of thousands
of startup items. You’ll find advice on each one, helping you
decide
whether you should disable it.
Task List Programs From AnswersThatWork.com
www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm
Although
this site doesn’t provide a search tool, you can browse its
massive
list of startup programs. The names of these programs are organized
alphabetically, making it easier to find a particular startup program.
In addition, the descriptions and recommendations at this site are
quite thorough.
Free
Tools
The
System Configuration Utility is OK, but it has its limitations.
You’ll
find more capable programs on the Web that can handle your startup
items. The following free applications are startup program managers
that work in a manner that’s similar to the System
Configuration
Utility but are friendlier and more effective.
Startup Inspector
www.windowsstartup.com/startupinspector.php
Startup
Inspector displays a list of your startup items, letting you easily
enable or disable them. The program also explains what each startup
item does and rates it to help you decide what you should do with it.
Even if you disable an item, Startup Inspector will keep it in its list
just in case you need to re-enable it. This software also can identify
adware and spyware lurking in your startup routine.
Startup Control Panel
www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml
Created
by Mike Lin, an MIT student and programmer, the Startup Control Panel
application offers a simple interface from which you can manage
your startup items. And like other apps in this category, you can
disable a startup item without worrying about whether it will remain in
the list should you decide to re-enable it.
StartupMonitor
www.mlin.net/StartupMonitor.shtml
Here’s
another application from Mike Lin for this category, but this utility
works differently than the others we cover in this article. Rather than
manage existing startup programs, StartupMonitor watches your
installations. That way, if a new application tries to start
automatically, StartupMonitor will pop up to ask if you want it in your
startup routine. By operating in this manner, this utility can keep
your startup list from growing too large in the first place.
StartupRun
nirsoft.net/utils/strun.html
StartupRun
from NirSoft includes details on each startup item, including a name,
directory path, version number, manufacturer, and a brief description
of the item. You can easily enable or disable any item and run several
startup commands on the fly to see what each one does.
For
A Better Start Next Time
In
addition to some Windows startup items and utilities, there are other
programs you need in your startup routine because they help protect
your computer: antivirus, firewall, and antispyware applications, as
well as their utilities that check for updates online. But you
certainly can disable update checks for less critical programs such as
QuickTime and RealPlayer.
You’ll also find that some programs
are persistent, sneaking back into your startup even after you disabled
them. To keep an eye on your startup items, you should periodically use
the System Configuration Utility or run one of the startup program
managers we mentioned. By disabling the startup programs you
don’t
need, Windows will load quicker and run faster. Of course, with a
quicker startup, your morning coffee breaks may become shorter, but we
don’t think you’ll be complaining. 
by Lance Whitney
"Reprinted with permission from Smart Computing.
Visit www.SmartComputing.com/Groups
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Corinne
Higbee, New User Lesson