0 Cleaning Up Unwanted Startup Programs

Many freeware and commercial software programs have a habit of setting
themselves up to run automatically upon Windows startup. This can
contribute to the gradual decline in startup speed that most Windows XP
systems (and windows PCs in general) experience. Also, having programs
that you only use selectively, or not at all, load automatically is a
waste of system resources that could be better used for other things.



To top it off, many internet nasties such as spyware programs, viruses
and Trojan horses will install themselves into one of the automatic
start locations on your system in order to make sure that they are run
on startup. So the point is, take a look at what is currently running
every time you load your PC, and disable what you don't need or can't
identify.



To do this: The first place you should go is 'startprogramsstartup'
which is a directory Windows XP uses to launch application shortcuts on
boot-up.



If you remove the shortcuts from this directory, the applications will
not load on startup. This directory can also be a repository for
various badness such as spyware and virus software, so if there are
files here which are not shortcuts and you don't recognize them, you
may wish to consider removing them anyways, as Windows will not place
critical files in this directory.



The next location for removing unnecessary startup files is the handy
MSCONFIG utility that has been resurrected from the graveyard of
Windows 9x especially for XP.



Go to 'startrun' and type 'msconfig' to access the utility.



The 'startup' tab in MSCONFIG provides access to several other
applications that are started at boot up and are running in the
background. By examining their Filenames and directories, you should be
able to get a feeling for what is necessary and what is not. Be aware
than several viruses and worms have a habit of disguising themselves
with authoritative sounding Windows system file names.



The other method for removing these programs is through the programs
themselves, as many applications, for example MSN messenger, contain
the option to remove the software from startup.