Wednesday’s Question.
Thank you to everyone who is participating! Here is our next question from Jeff A. In New York:
Hey Admin!Help me with my startup problem. When i start up my windows xp pro laptop it starts all sorts of crap in the task bar by the time. they are not in the startup menu. I used to use MSCONFIG but it dont seem to work. Can you fix that too?
Lets get some ideas rolling to help out Jeff!
_TheadmiN_
Guys, Dont Be Shy – New Users Welcome – Everyone Can Comment!
_TheAdmin_
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about 4 years ago
yes i just noticed i cant use msconfig on my xp service pack 2 desktop either. what is it a new virus????????????????
about 4 years ago
To find everything that is loaded on boot, that is not in the ‘startup’ menu, you need to go into the registry(START -> RUN ->REGEDIT ->OK).
*************PROCEED WITH CAUTION!**********
Changes made in the registry that are mistakes can SERIOUSLY mess with your PC. Make sure you’ve got System Restore on and you make a restore point before doing anything.
With that said, go into HKEY LOCAL MACHINE ->SOFTWARE -> MICROSOFT -> WINDOWS -> CURRENT VERSION -> RUN
Here is a list of everything that starts on boot.
Be very cautious as to what you remove(right click, delete on the keys in question). Track down anything that seems obscure or an application you do not recognize. If you recognize it and don’t want it to start, nuke the key. If you don’t recognize it and you can’t find anything to let you know what it is…LEAVE IT! It is better to wait an extra 10 secs on boot than to FUBAR your PC.
PS: What you can also do to protect yourself is to back up the registry key to your desktop so you can recreate it in lieu of System Restore which is a resource hog and will cause system degradation.
about 4 years ago
I’m Jeff the guy with all the crap starting up. I really dont want to mess with the registry but i looked and there are lots of things there.
can i get a program like msconfig on XP?
about 4 years ago
Sysinternals Site
Follow that link. I will take you to the Sysinternals site for the Autorun utility which is now owned by MS.
Good little utilities there.
This little utility will tell you EVERYTHING that is running when you start your computer. You’ll be most interested in the LOGON tab as that is the stuff that strings next to the clock on the bottom right.
about 4 years ago
Great Find Slothman – you seem like you got all the answers!
Any interest in guest blogging? Hit me up at info at mistercomputerhead dot com!
You can also copy MSCONFIG off of a windows 2000 machine to use it on ANY Windows OS later than 2000.
So I can copy the msconfig.exe file from my windows 2000 machine and run it on my windows xp machine.
Either Way Works For Me! Case Closed Point SlothMan!
about 4 years ago
Sloth and Karl thank u i was able to fix my machine with ur help.
JA
about 4 years ago
I really wonder why nobody said the word “hijackthis”. The program scans your computer for everything that is on your system, programs that starts along with windows etc. If you are unsure on the files, you can google them to see if they are “good” or “bad”, and then delete it.
This should also take care of your problem.
about 4 years ago
Hijack this wouldn’t be good for something like Apple Quicktime, or Kodak Easyshare software, all of which run at start-up and put a dman icon in the system tray. msconfig normally works, but if it isn’t loading for some reason, if you have Spybot S&D, In the advanced options under startup you can uncheck things you don’t want running at startup like MSCONFIG.