Speed Up Windows by Disabling Startup Programs

Speed Up Windows by Disabling Startup Programs Increase Your PC s Speed by Preventing Unnecessary Programs from Running Windows All S 630 / 1 When you look at the tray area beside the clock, do you see a lot of icons? After you start your computer, does it take a long time for Windows to finish loading and be ready to use? Does your PC seem a lot slower than it used to be? If the answer to any of these questions is Yes, the reason is likely to be that a lot of unnecessary programs are being loaded in the background and slowing down your system. In this article, I ll explain how to identify and disable these unnecessary programs and regain some of your system s former speed. By Rob Young What Are Startup Programs and What Problems Do They Cause?... Check the Tray, Home to Many Startup Programs... The Three Methods of Removing Unnecessary Startup Programs... This article shows you:... How startup programs slow down your PC... Where to find signs of startup programs... How to disable the unnecessary programs S 630 / 2 S 630 / 5 S 630 / 6 51

S 630 / 2 Speed Up Windows by Disabling Startup Programs 52 Programs that run each time Windows starts Windows loads your desktop and personal settings What Are Startup Programs and What Problems Do They Cause? The term startup program is a fairly simple one: it refers to a program that has been set to run automatically every time Windows starts. If that seems a rather underhanded thing to be going on, don t worry it s completely normal. There are certain programs that have to be running all the time (your anti-virus program is a great example), so it makes sense for them to be started automatically as soon as possible after your computer starts. However, not all startup programs are necessary, or even particularly beneficial. To understand why not, it helps to know what happens when your computer starts: When you switch on your PC, it carries out some basic checks, indicated by white text on a black background. It makes sure the memory (RAM ) works, checks you have at least one hard disk, looks for your operating system (the version of Windows installed on your hard disk) and runs the command that starts Windows loading. Windows has to carry out its own checks, load files, run vital programs, and get itself started, all of which usually takes at least half a minute. Next, you reach the point at which you log in to Windows (or you may have the system set to log you in automatically). When you log in, Windows runs one very important program named Explorer.exe which displays your desktop, taskbar, Start menu, and almost everything else you use to interact with the PC.

Speed Up Windows by Disabling Startup Programs S 630 / 3 It also starts a few other vital aspects of Windows invisible programs that allow you to print, connect to the Internet, and so on. This should generally take only a few seconds. Finally, Windows checks what other programs are supposed to start automatically. It runs through that list, starting those programs. This keeps the system busy, so although you can see your desktop and it looks as though the computer should be ready to use, anything you try to do is likely to be severely delayed (or even completely ignored). Depending on how many startup programs are in this list, and how much work each one causes the PC, it may be many seconds or more than a minute in the worst cases before things quieten down and you can start using the computer. A long delay between your desktop appearing and the computer being ready to use is a strong clue that there are a lot of startup programs. That delay is irritating enough by itself, of course, but it s not the only problem. Some of these startup programs may only run for a short time, which isn t too bad: their job may be to do something, or check something, and then close themselves again after a few seconds. Others, however, may remain running until you shutdown the PC. In doing so, each one occupies some of your computer s RAM, leaving less RAM available for the programs you try to use yourself and thus causing everything you do to take longer. What are these programs doing? Well, it varies of course: Some hidden programs remain running all day Some are doing a vital job and really do need to be running constantly. Your anti-virus 53

S 630 / 4 Speed Up Windows by Disabling Startup Programs Many of these programs are unnecessary program has to keep a constant watch over your PC to protect it, so you wouldn t want to prevent this from running. Likewise, you may have an anti-spyware program and a firewall (or a suite of Internet Security programs) which help to guard your computer. Some may be programs you ve purposely installed because you want the features they offer. For example, you may have a program that checks your email every few minutes and tells you if messages have arrived, or a program that changes your desktop wallpaper picture every hour. If you like these things to happen, the price you pay is that the programs have to be running all the time and using up some of your PC s resources. I m not suggesting there s anything wrong with the types of programs mentioned above, or that it s bad that they re using your PC s resources. Your computer s memory and processor are there to be used, and it s up to you how they re used! Others are programs you may not be aware of at all. Many programs you install add a little helper that starts automatically and runs constantly. It may be checking for newer versions of the program every so often, or it may help your program to start faster when you want to use it. It may even do something as esoteric as enabling your computer to play a particular type of audio or video file on the rare occasions you visit a web page that contains one! These are all examples of programs that don t really need to be running and occupying your PC s attention. They re part of a growing trend in which software makers regard their program as the most 54

Speed Up Windows by Disabling Startup Programs S 630 / 5 important thing under the sun, and assume we ll make any sacrifice in order to install it including sacrifices we re not even aware of! Check the Tray, Home to Many Startup Programs A good way to find some of the startup programs running on your computer is to look at the icons shown in the tray (the area beside the clock on the taskbar). With a very few exceptions, each icon you see here represents a program running on your computer, and the vast majority of those were run at startup and will remain running until you shut down. The exceptions I mentioned are a few icons placed here by Windows. You ll see a speaker icon for changing the audio volume; two little overlapping screens to indicate you re connected to the Internet or a network ; perhaps another that says Safely Remove Hardware when you hover over it with the mouse; and perhaps one notifying you that updates for Windows are available. These are normal and they don t represent unnecessary programs. If you use Windows Vista or XP, note that Windows hides a few of your tray icons. If you can see an arrow to the left of the icons, as pictured in the following screenshot, click it to reveal the hidden icons. You ll see at least a few icons here, but how many? A normal figure is about half-a-dozen: if you have fewer, that s good; if you have many more than that, it suggests that some unnecessary programs may be running. Most icons in the tray represent a program that s running Click the arrow to reveal all the icons 55

S 630 / 6 Speed Up Windows by Disabling Startup Programs 56 You may be able to identify these programs You may be unaware that many programs are running So what are these icons? Well, many programs put an icon here, rather than displaying a window, to indicate that they re running. When you hold the mouse over one of these icons for a moment, you should see a small tooltip message giving a brief description of what it is. If you right-click an icon, you ll usually see a menu of options for the program, and those options may also give you a clue about what the program is. (You can press the Esc key on your keyboard to close the menu.) If you have a large number of icons in the tray, I d be willing to bet there are some you don t recognise at all, even after holding the mouse over them or right-clicking them. Or perhaps you do recognise the odd icon, but you d forgotten you ever installed the program and never use it? Nevertheless, these programs are running constantly using your computer s memory and slowing it down. In many cases, the menu that appears when you right-click one of these tray icons will contain an Exit, Close or Quit item a way to close the program. If you click that item, the program should close and its icon should disappear. However, if the program had started itself automatically, it will do so again next time you start the computer. The Three Methods of Removing Unnecessary Startup Programs The icons in the tray are a visual indication that programs are running, but they re not the whole story. There can be many other programs that run completely invisibly no tray icon, no window, nothing but they re still occupying your computer s attentions and slowing it down.

Speed Up Windows by Disabling Startup Programs S 630 / 7 If you have a large number of tray icons, your computer takes a long time to start, and/or it feels slow in normal use, the odds are that you have a lot of programs running, many quite unnecessarily. Over the next few pages I ll explain how to go about removing or disabling those you don t need. There are three methods we ll use, and before I launch into the first, here are very quick descriptions of each: 1. If it s a program you don t need, uninstall it. 2. Check whether you can tell the program not to run automatically at startup. 3. See a list of all startup programs and disable any that are unnecessary. Method 1: Uninstall programs you never use This method and the next involve the tray icons. This means these methods won t help with those completely-invisible programs, which as yet you probably know nothing about, but we ll deal with those in the third method. This method is fairly quick and simple. By a combination of holding the mouse over the tray icons to see their tooltip descriptions, and rightclicking them to see their menus, see if you can work out what each program is. Let s say that you can identify one of those icons as a program called Widget (for example). Can you also say, Yes, I dimly remember installing Widget, but I never use it and I don t expect to? If so, the best thing to do is simply to uninstall Widget. After all, not only is it sitting on your hard disk wasting a little space, it s running constantly for no reason! Try to determine what each icon is 57

S 630 / 8 Speed Up Windows by Disabling Startup Programs If you re not sure how to uninstall a program, you can find step-by-step details in article I520 Installing & Uninstalling Software Yourself in your PC Knowledge for Seniors main manual. If you recognise one of these programs in the tray, but it s one that you do use, this method isn t for you (unless you re happy to stop using it). Instead there are two questions to ask yourself: Why is this program running all the time? and Am I happy for it to do that?. You should be able to find the answer to the first question in the program s manual, in its built-in help file, or on its website. (Remember that for important security software like your anti-virus program, it does have to be running all the time, and you re definitely happy for it to do that!) 58 Look for an option to start the program automatically Method 2: Check the program s own options This method also applies to the icons in the tray, but it involves a little exploration and investigation. Try this method when you can identify what one of these programs is, you want to keep it, but you can t see any good reason for it to run automatically at startup: 1. Right-click the icon, which will usually display a menu. 2. Look on the menu for an item that says Options, Settings, Preferences or something similar a way to change the settings for that program. 3. If you find a likely-looking item, click it and a window should appear. 4. The window will vary from one program to another of course, so this is where the

Speed Up Windows by Disabling Startup Programs S 630 / 9 exploration comes in! Look through the available options to see if you can find one that says Run automatically at startup or something along those lines. Again, of course, the wording will vary, but there aren t too many ways to describe the option of starting a program when Windows starts, so you ll probably recognise it when you see it. 5. If you do find an option that fits the bill, switch off the option: it will usually be a checkbox which you can click to remove its tick. After doing that, click OK to close the dialog, keeping the change you made. If you can t find any option that relates to starting the program automatically when Windows starts, don t experiment unnecessarily just click Cancel or close the window. Method 3: See a list of all startup programs This is the method used by expert PC users, and although it s not particularly difficult, it does require a little care, along with a little research as I ll explain. Unfortunately, it s a method that can t be used in Windows 2000 or Windows 95 because those versions of Windows don t include the program we need to use for the job. The program in question is called the System Configuration Utility, and it displays a list of every program that runs at startup. This includes programs that place an icon in the tray, but it also includes programs that run completely invisibly those which, as yet, you re probably not aware of. Using the System Configuration Utility, you can prevent any of these programs from starting, but this is where the care and research comes A list of all the startup programs 59

S 630 / 10 Speed Up Windows by Disabling Startup Programs in: you need to make sure you re not disabling anything vital. Here are the steps to follow: 1. If you use Windows Vista, open the Start menu and type msconfig into the Start Search box at the bottom and then press Enter. If you use Windows XP/Me/98, choose Start > Run, type msconfig into the Run box and press Enter. Each item is a program that starts automatically 2. The System Configuration Utility will appear, with several tabs along the top. Click the Startup tab. 3. The window will look similar to the next screenshot: a list of items with checkboxes beside them. Each of these items represents a program, and the programs with ticks in their checkboxes are being started every time Windows starts. (If this is the first time you ve used this list, you ll probably find that every program has a tick beside it.) Make the Command column wide enough to read 4. You can see that the information about each program is divided into two or more columns. 60

Speed Up Windows by Disabling Startup Programs S 630 / 11 In Windows 98 there are two columns with no headings above them, and Windows 98 users scan skip to step 5. In other versions of Windows you can see headings such as Startup Item and Command. These headings are squashed together so that you can t read the full text in each column. To make the columns wider, move the mouse to the dividing line between two columns, as pictured in the next screenshot, and either drag the line to the right or simply doubleclick. (When you double-click, the column makes itself just the right width to display all its text.) The column you most need to read completely is the Command column. Double-click (or drag) the dividing line 5. Now, in a nutshell, you need to work your way methodically down this list determining what each program is and whether it s necessary: If you use Windows Vista, the leftmost column shows the name of the program. This will help you identify important programs like Windows Defender and your anti-virus program which should definitely remain ticked. Depending on your experience, you may also recognise items which you know don t need to be running at startup: if so, you can remove the ticks beside them. In any version of Windows, look in the Command column (which is the second column in Windows 98, although it doesn t say Command above it). This tells you the name of the program file being started. However, some of these commands are quite Find the name of the program s file 61

S 630 / 12 Speed Up Windows by Disabling Startup Programs complex, so here s how to identify the filename in them: look for the very last dot in the command; next scan back to the beginning of the word to the left of that dot; the filename is that word plus the dot that follows it and the few letters (usually three) following the dot. Here are some examples: Check what the program is at this website Check the program s status In the first example the filename is jusched.exe. In the second it s MSASCui.exe. In the third it s NvCpl.dll. 6. Armed with the filename, the next step is to do a little research. For this there s a terrific website which will tell you what the program is and whether it s necessary to have it running at startup. Start Internet Explorer (or whichever web browser you prefer to use) and visit this site: www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php 7. When you arrive at the site, you ll see a text box with a Search button beside it. Type the name of the program into the box and click Search. 8. The results of the search should look like the next screenshot. There may be several items which have the name you typed, so the next step is to check which is the one you found in your own list. You can do that by comparing the Name or Startup Item shown for each with what appears in the leftmost column of your own list. When you find the matching item, you can read the Description to find out what the program is, and check the Status to 62

Speed Up Windows by Disabling Startup Programs S 630 / 13 see whether it s important. The Status shown is just one letter which means the following: Y Yes, you should leave this program ticked. N No, you should remove the tick from this program. U User s choice: it s up to you. (Personally I would suggest removing the tick.) X This is something malicious or otherwise undesirable and you should remove its tick. In the screenshot below I searched for a program named jusched.exe. Although there are three different items found with that name, their status is either N or X, so I know I can remove the tick beside this item. Type the filename Click Search 9. Depending on the result you found from this website, either leave the item ticked to allow it to run at startup, or remove its tick to prevent it from running. Then move to the next item in the list and do the same research on that one. 10.When you ve worked your way down the list, removing ticks from anything that appears to be unnecessary, click OK in the System Configuration Utility. Straight away you ll see a dialog asking you to restart your computer: click the Restart button. 63

S 630 / 14 Speed Up Windows by Disabling Startup Programs 11. As soon as Windows has restarted you ll see a rather lengthy message like the following screenshot. This is telling you that you ve made adjustments to the startup programs (as you know!). Near the bottom you ll see a checkbox beside the words Don t show this message.... Tick that box, which prevents Windows from displaying the same message every time you start the PC, and then click OK. If you use Windows Vista, this final step happens a little differently. You ll see a balloon message that says Windows has blocked some startup programs and points to an icon in the tray a tiny window with a red no-entry sign in its corner. Click that icon, move the mouse up to Run blocked program and click System Configuration Utility. You ll then see the wordy dialog pictured in the screenshot: tick the box at the bottom of the dialog and then click OK. Tick this box Click OK Depending on how many programs you removed the ticks from in the System Configuration Utility, you may have noticed that your computer started more quickly, and perhaps that you now have fewer icons in the tray. 64 Almost every startup program could be disabled How to Reinstate Startup Programs You Disabled It s safe to say that almost all the startup items you found listed in the System Configuration

Speed Up Windows by Disabling Startup Programs S 630 / 15 Utility are unnecessary. By that I mean that your computer and your day-to-day programs will run perfectly happily without them. In fact, one approach is simply to identify the few programs that really are needed (which usually boils down to your anti-virus program, Windows Defender if you use Windows Vista, and any other Internet security programs you have), and to disable everything else. If you do find that you ve accidentally disabled something important, such as your anti-virus program, it s easy to reinstate it. Start the System Configuration Utility again and switch to its Startup tab, by following the first two steps on page 10, then find the required program in the list and tick it. Click OK and restart your computer when prompted. Note that every time you use the System Configuration Utility and restart your PC, you ll see the dialog shown in step 11. Remember to tick the checkbox at the bottom before clicking OK to ensure that you won t see it every time you start your PC. How To Avoid Gaining Unwanted Startup Programs Startup programs are sometimes malicious: they may be spyware of some sort, or programs that plague you with advertisements, and these are certainly things you d want to be rid of. However, running a good anti-spyware program and scanning your system should find and remove these nasties. The majority of startup programs are quite safe, and their makers presumably think they re actually helpful. To take one well-known example, Adobe You can easily reinstate one of these programs Anti-spyware software removes malicious programs 65

S 630 / 16 Speed Up Windows by Disabling Startup Programs Few programs ask whether they should run at startup Reader installs a startup program that helps the main Adobe Reader program start faster when you use it. If you re someone who uses Reader several times each day, you might appreciate this; if you re not, you might prefer not to have this extra program running constantly, and be content to wait a few extra seconds on the occasions when you do use Adobe Reader. Unfortunately, you re not always asked whether you want these programs to be running, and you won t realise they are unless they place an icon in the tray or you keep an eye on the System Configuration Utility s list. One thing you can do is to keep an eye on the options you re offered whenever you install a new program. In the screenshot below, for example, a program named Orbit is being installed, and it offers the option to Start Orbit on system startup. By watching out for these options during an installation, you can make sure they re not ticked before continuing. Sadly, though, it s an unfortunate fact that many programs cheerfully contribute to slowing down your PC in this way without giving any hint of what they re doing. Watch out for this kind of option when installing a new program 66