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Speedup Your Computer – Clean Your “Startup”
By Ira Wilsker, APCUG Director; Columnist, The Examiner, Beaumont, TX; radio & TV show host
iwilsker@apcug.net

WEBSITES:
http://www.sysinfo.org
http://www.safer-networking.org
http://www.answersthatwork.com

I recently received several questions on my weekly radio show (KLVI 560AM, Saturdays 1-3pm) and my TV show (KEBQ-TV22, cable 99, Saturdays 4-5pm) about computers that were slow to boot, and had obvious performance degradation.  While there are many causes of this inadequate performance, such as a fragmented hard drive, and other problems, one of the most common causes of slow booting and poor performance is having too many programs automatically load when the computer is booting.

Fortunately, there are several good solutions and resources that can speed the boot problem and improve performance.  The manual solution, available on most but not all versions of Windows from Windows 98 to XP is to utilize the integrated command MSCONFIG.  If available, MSCONFIG can be accessed by clicking on START – RUN and then typing “MSCONFIG” (no quotes, and it is not case sensitive) in the box, and then click on “OK”.  A window will open showing several tabs, one of which will be labeled “Start” or “Startup”.  This will typically be a white window with black print, showing a checkbox followed by a program name or path.  Boxes that are checked indicate a program that will load when the computer is booted.  Unfortunately, as the computer is used, and more software is installed, many programs like to have themselves unnecessarily load at boot time, and many viruses and Trojans also utilize this method to load each time the computer is turned on.

While there are countless thousands of legitimate and illicit Windows programs which want to load at boot, there are several resources, some of them free, which can identify programs as necessary or unnecessary at boot.  Once identified, unchecking the appropriate box on the MSCONFIG – STARTUP list may stop that program from loading.  An excellent and fairly up-to-date website which lists most of the items that may show up in the startup box, is Paul Collins (a.k.a. “Pacman”) startup list available at www.sysinfo.org.  The user of this website can enter either a program name from the startup list (without the path; c:\directory\program.exe would only use “program.exe”).  Once the item is found on the web list, it is clearly described, and labeled as:  “Y” – Necessary, leave it alone; “N” – not required and could be started manually if needed; “U” – Users’ choice; “X” – Definitely not required, a resource hog, virus, spyware, or other item that should not be loaded at boot; “?” – Unknown, not listed.  If the file listed adjacent to the checkbox is listed as a “Y”, leave it checked, and if listed as “X”, then uncheck the box.  Items marked as “N” should be unchecked, unless they are frequently used shortly after the computer is booted.

Many users are not comfortable performing such tasks manually, but there are several utilities available that contain a startup manager to ease the process of deciding what to allow to run, and what to stop.   One free utility that actually is intended for another function, but contains an easy to use startup manager is the popular anti-spyware product Spybot Search and Destroy (www.safer-networking.org).  Since many spyware products install themselves in the startup list, Spybot allows the user to control those malware programs as well as all other startup programs at boot.  Download the Spybot, install and update it, and then open it.  Click on “Mode” on the menu bar, and select “Advanced”.  On the left side of the window will be a choice of utilities.  Go to “Tools” and click on “System Startup”.   This will load a list of programs loaded at boot, along with their corresponding checkboxes.  The right edge of the window has a narrow gray bar with two triangular arrows, one right (close) and one left (open); click on this bar and the data from Paul Collins’ startup list (mentioned above) will be shown as each listed item is clicked on.  Necessary items are highlighted in green, and users’ choice items are highlighted yellow.  Dangerous and unnecessary items are highlighted in red, and white items are unknown to “Pacman”.  Unwanted items can have their corresponding “check” removed by clicking on the checkbox; this will stop the item from loading at boot.  Items can also be deleted using the red “X” at the top of the window.  When Spybot is exited, the changes to the startup will be saved, and should not load at the next boot.

A reasonably priced ($20) commercial program that offers greater power and flexibility to control what loads when the computer boots is a British program “The Ultimate Trouble Shooter” available at www.answersthatwork.com.  Open the program and click “Startups”.  Initially, startup programs will be labeled in the traditional red (remove), yellow (personal choice), green (leave it alone), and white (not listed).  Upon clicking on any startup item a detailed description is displayed on the bottom half of the window.  Unchecking a box will stop the item from loading at the next boot.

There are several other utilities that contain startup managers, and most will do a satisfactory job.  By cleaning the files that load at boot, the computer will boot faster, have fewer software conflicts, run faster, shutdown faster, and increase your computing satisfaction.

There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author.  The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.