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Clean-Up the
Start-Up
Disabling Startup
Items and
Disabling Windows XP Startup Programs
What is a
Startup Item?
Start up items are
programs that startup automatically when windows boots
up. There are never any startup items that are critical
to the operation of the PC, however some programs like anti
virus may not work properly or cause an errors if they are
disabled. You may also have difficulties getting online
if you disable any of your Internet Service Provider's
software. All of these problems can be fixed by
re-enabling the startup item you disabled, or re-installing
the software.
Some other examples of
startup items would be things like MSN
messenger, ICQ, weather monitoring software, or a
media program such as quick time or real player.
Why would I want
to disable startup items?
There are two main
reasons why you would want disable startup items:
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To increase the
operational performance of your PC while decreasing the time
it takes to startup
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To disable or
prevent viruses, malware, spyware and other unwanted
software from loading.
Just like services,
disabling startup
items free up valuable resources towards the use of
legitimate and useful programs and applications.
How do I
disable non-essential startup
items?
If you are not
already in safemode, please go back to the section that
describes how to do this before continuing. It can be
found here.
It is important that you
perform these procedures in safe mode as it will ensure
startup items stay disabled once you reboot.
Some types of viruses
and malware monitor when they are attempted to be
disabled. By booting to safe mode, you are ensuring the
malware and viruses do not become active and prevent you from
effectively disabling them.
Opening the system configuration
utility
Open the System Configuration
Utility
You may already have
the System Configuration Utility opened. If you
don't, just follow step 1 and 2.
Open
the System Configuration
Utility
Click Start > Run.
Type in msconfig without
the quotes.
Click on the
Startup tab
Click on the tab
called Startup. Make sure the window
you are looking at looks similar to the picture below.
Do not worry if you have different items in the Startup
Items column than portrayed below as you most
certainly do not have an identical PC to me.
What Startup
Items do I disable?
Once again, I am
going to put a two scenarios in front of you so you can choose
what you feel best describes the current state of your
computer.
Scenario 1 – “The
Super Clean”
If you have many pop-ups, your
computer runs slow, you have error messages and you have just
about had it with you PC, you may want to choose this
option. This option can create a lot more work for you
in the end, but it almost always guarantees a very clean
system when you are through
Scenario 2 –
“The Selective Clean”
If your system has been
running fairly well, and you do not suspect spyware, malware
or viruses choose this option. It will be faster than
“The Super Clean”, but may be difficult to choose what
services you want to disable.
“The Super
Clean”
If you have chosen to do
a “The Super Clean”, there are a few critical things you must
understand before proceeding further:
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The Super Clean is a full
fledge disabling of ALL startup items.
When you disable all startup items you will
suffer the following consequences and will need to take
appropriate action on the reboot to rectify these
situations:
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On the next reboot to normal mode, you
may see error messages that state your Anti-virus is
corrupt, disabled, or non-functional. These
problems will be rectified by re-installing your
anti-virus software, or re-enabling the services that
you disabled.
You may also see similar problems
with any other type of security suite you may have
installed. If you have a software firewall
installed you may not be able to get online until you
re-enable the startup items you de-selected, or
reinstall the firewall. The windows firewall is
not affected by this step.
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You may lose the ability to connect to
the internet. You will need to reinstall all
software provided to you by your ISP (Internet Service
Provider) in order to get back online. Most
users on cable internet will not have to worry about
this problem. Some dialup and ADSL users may
find that after performing a super clean the software
that helps you connect to the Internet has been
disabled. These problems will be rectified by
re-installing your ISP’s software, or re-enabling the
services that you disabled.
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Some other applications require
special startup items to run in order to operate
properly. The problems with this software will
be rectified by re-installing your applications, or
re-enabling the services that you disabled.
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Disabling Startup
Items (See image below steps for reference):
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Once again, the best
part of the super clean is that it is SIMPLE. Click
the disable all button in the bottom right hand corner of
the services tab in the System Configuration Utility.
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Click “Apply”
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The "OK" button
should now say "Close". Before clicking close you must
make sure your system is configured properly to boot back up
into normal mode - please go to "Make sure you are
configured to boot to normal mode" section by clicking here
to make sure you are configured properly.
“The
Selective Clean”
If you have chosen to
perform a selective clean you will only be disabling certain
startup items. Please read the warning section of the
super clean as disabling certain services when doing a
selective clean may cause problems with certain functionality
of the computer on the next reboot.
Selectively
Disabling Startup Items:
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The key to disabling
non-important startup items lies in the "Command"
column. You will need to expand the column out so that
you can read all of the text, and look for keywords.
You DO NOT want to disable any software that you recognize,
so follow the example below to determine how this is
done.
EXAMPLE: You may have
installed Norton Anti-virus by Symantec Corp at one
point. Look for words that refer to "Norton" or
"Symantec". You may also use AOL, so you will want to
look for items that say "AOL".
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Once you have
identified the startup items you DO NOT want to
disable, proceed with un-checking the startup items in the
“Startup Item” column that you want to disable.
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Once you are
satisfied with the services you have chosen to disable,
click the “Apply” button.
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The "OK" button
should now say "Close". Before clicking close you must
make sure your system is configured properly to boot back up
into normal mode - please go to "Make sure you are
configured to boot to normal mode" section by clicking here
to make sure you are configured properly.
Configure your PC to Boot to Normal
Mode
As you may recall in
part 3, step 3, we configured your system to boot up into Safe
Mode by using the "System Configuration Utility". If we
do not change this setting before we reboot, your computer
will start back up into safemode.
If you used the "F8
method" as also described in part 3 step 3, you do not need to
follow this step, your computer will reboot to normal mode
automatically. Before you reboot, first read this
warning otherwise everything you have done may need to be done
again by one simple click of a button.
If you used the "System
Configuration Utility" to configure your computer to start
into safemode, follow these steps and then read the
warning:
When
you are finished working in safemode, follow these
instructions:
Open the System Configuration
Utility
Click Start >
Run. Type in
msconfig. Click
OK.
Open the System Configuration
Utility
Configure boot options
Click on the
boot.ini tab and UNCHECK the checkmark next
to safeboot. Click
Apply. Click
Close.
Read warning!!
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When you click
the Close button in the System
Configuration Utility, you will be prompted to either
Restart, or Exit Without
Restart
You will want to choose
Restart, but before you do, please read
the following
On the reboot, you
will see a box that tells you that You have used
the System Configuration Utility to make changes to the
way windows starts
YOU
MUST CHECK THE BOX next to Don't
show this message or launch the System Configuration
Utility when windows starts. Failing to
do so may automatically re-enable every item that you
had disabled in the previous steps.
Once the
box has been checked, click ok and your PC should
restart.
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As mentioned previously,
you may have errors or problems with certain programs on the
reboot. Usually the easiest way to fix these problems is
to reinstall the software the error messages refer to, but
another method would be to follow through the process you just
went through and re-enable the startup item or service you had
disabled.
You should already
notice a vast improvement in your system performance
already.
The final steps involve
downloading and installing free programs that are detailed in
the next section, understanding where and why you get infected
and other resources that are available to you to help with
your computer issues.
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