(Approx. 458 words)

Let’s Clean “Start-Up”
By Bob Elgines, Editor, Colorado River Computer Club, AZRCC Editor  
www.crccaz.com/
elginesz(at)rraz.net

Obtained from APCUG with the author's permission for publication by APCUG member groups

Does your computer boot-up or run slow? Maybe there are too many programs running in the back ground. Let us do the following check first.

Hold your CTRL & ALT buttons and press the DELETE button.
Click on the PERFORMANCE tab, is your CPU Usage running more than 10% or is your Physical Memory being in total use?

Go to START then RUN, type in “msconfig” which stands for Microsoft System Configuration. In Windows VISTA you can find RUN in the ACCESSORY folder under PROGRAMS.

The System Configuration Utility windows will come up.

First go to the upper right tab labeled STARTUP, here you will see the list of items that load during startup. Of course some you want, some you don’t. In the first column labeled STARTUP ITEM gives a very rough idea to what it is referenced too, but the second column labeled COMMAND, is much more useful. Too read it better, widen the column out by holding your mouse symbol over the vertical line located before the next column label. A double arrow will appear, then hold down left mouse button and move it to the right. This information tells you where it is located and in some cases which program is using it. Uncheck those in question, you can put them back in later if you need too. Do not uncheck you Antivirus or Spyware programs.

Next go to the tab on top labeled SERVICES, this show all of the programs running now. You do not what to uncheck those labeled Microsoft under the MANUFACTURER column, so to start off, lets put a check mark in the box below labeled “Hide all Microsoft Services”.

Now while you are reviewing the other programs running in the background note the forth column labeled STATUS. If it says STOPPED, then don’t worry about it. We just want to stop the strange ones that are RUNNING. You can uncheck those that you are not familiar with, here again you may bring them back in later.

After un-checking all those items under tabs STARTUP & SERVICES, then click on APPLY and CLOSE. 

The System Configuration Utility will now ask you to RESTART (or Boot) your computer.

After restarting a window will come up stating System Configuration Utility has been changed, be sure to put a check mark in the bottom left (labeled “Don’t show this message or launch …..”) before clicking OK.

If you improved your operation of your computer, you can put back in the items one at a time until you find the program that was slowing you down.