Startup

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What is Startup ?

Many people are confused about Startup, which has long been a feature of Windows. The idea was that if a program needed to be in the memory of your computer from the beginning (such as anti virus software) then it should load at the Start up of your PC. Unfortunately, Startup blossomed and began to include things which were unnecessary and which could be started by you when you wanted then. Programmers, anxious to make their wares popular or necessary, found ways to introduce them to Startup. Not only that, virus writers found it an easy way to make sure the virus infected your computer every time you started, even though you thought you had got rid of it from the hard disk. So, it is a good idea to keep a check on Startup. For one thing, the programs are loaded into memory and that means that they are eating into your memory resources and can cause your PC to run more slowly. So, let us have a look at Startup and which programs can be eliminated.

Most Windows users go to Startup by going Start, Run, Msconfig, OK. You will see a screen like this.

Startup first screen

Leave all items on this screen as they are. Now click on the Startup tab. This shows a screen that looks like this:

Startup tab screen

It is not a very promising start because the screen is small and cannot be enlarged, the names of many of the programs are obscure and there is a lot of gibberish as to where they are located. It IS possible to change the width of each column by dragging the dividers at the top but much of the information is (annoyingly) obscured.

Another program will show much more clearly what you have.  It is a free program from Mike Lin at www.mlin.net and is called Startup Control Panel.  You CAN enlarge this screen by dragging out the borders with the mouse.  You can also widen the columns by dragging the divider at the top.

Startup Control Panel by Mike Lin

If you are still mystified about what is in your Startup get the free Startup Inspector from http://www.windowsstartup.com/

I have enlarged the window and it looks like this and you can see what a lot of programs are in my Startup.  They come under various headings such as HKLM/RUN  but don't worry about that.  With this program, If you untick an item you do not have to reboot. And you can also delete an item if you are sure you are never going to use it.  Be careful though.  This is a powerful tool.  

If you see an item that you do not recognise it is a good idea to make a Google search and it will usually show up in one of a number of sites such as http://www.windowsstartup.com/wso/search.php.. with advice as to whether it is necessary or (sometimes) a threat. You will see that there are hundreds of possibilities and many of them are threats.

There is another place where startup programs can be seen much more clearly and full screen. Go Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System information, double click Software Environment and click Startup Programs. Wait a second then, to see it full screen, click the small square, top right. You can't print this in a sensible format (unless you do the Printscreen trick) so you are back to writing things down. Now you are in a position to search for the ones you think are suspicious

I can assure you that every single item in startup can be unticked and your PC will still run. But hold on ! You DO want things like Anti Virus software and Firewall to start right at the beginning, so make sure that you do not untick things such as Mcafee, Symantec (Norton), Alwil (Avast),  Zone Alarm (firewall) or whatever you use. You may also have things that load your Broadband. There may be programs that enable your mouse, keyboard or graphics card (screen) to do special things. But on the whole most of the other programs are not required. If you see an item that you do not recognise it is a good idea to make a Google search and it will usually show up in one of a number of sites such as http://www.windowsstartup.com/wso/search.php with advice as to whether it is necessary or (sometimes) a threat. You will see that there are hundreds of possibilities and many of them are threats

Some entries may look familiar but a search on the above site for things like AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) and MSN revealed that virus writers are making programs look familiar to disguise them. In the case of the rogue file Msmsngr.exe (in the list below) this could easily be mistaken for the file Msnmsngr. which is the correct program.

Many threats are disguised

The programs that I regularly untick are all references to Textbridge (to do with scanning text) Office (you can call up any Microsoft Office program when you wish), RealPlayer and RealPlayer updates (they get in everywhere), Qtask (Quicktime) and many references to printers. If you use Microsoft Messenger you may or may not want it loaded when you first go on line. But if you untick it you need to put a shortcut on the desktop to make it easy to access when needed. It is important to realise that you can  re-tick anything that you have unticked.

But each time you make a change to Msconfig you will be expected to restart the machine and then will be presented with this screen when it has restarted and will have to tick and OK it.

The prompt you get after restarting

But be assured that I have never regretted unticking any item and certainly never had a problem with restarting the PC. So you can experiment. But leave your anti virus software intact.

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