Duplicate Entry in MSCONFIG

[Tom Hall]

When I run MSCONFIG and check the startup tab, there's always one item that
appears twice. It's changed from time to time, but there's always 2 entries
for exactly one startup item.

The interesting thing is, when I check the relevant registry hive, the item
appears there only once.

Does anyone have an idea on where that duplicate entry is coming from? I
even did a search of the registry for the exact command line, and couldn't
find a second entry.

On a somewhat related topic: where in the registry do items go when you
de-select them through MSCONFIG?

The duplicate is alway of one of the entries at:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

but there is no duplicate entry here.



Tom

 

[DatabaseBen]

try a freeware called autoruns from sysinternals.com
it may provide additional informaton regarding the entry
and its registry key.....

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Tom,

Is one of the duplicate entries disabled? If you want to disable a startup
entry, the first place is to do it using the program's in-built options.
Although you can disable an entry using MSCONFIG, the concerned application
will re-add the startup entry, thereby the duplicates.

BTW, the disabled entries are kept under the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft\Shared Tools \ MSConfig \
startupreg
-and-
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft\Shared Tools \ MSConfig \
startupfolder

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


When I run MSCONFIG and check the startup tab, there's always one item that
appears twice. It's changed from time to time, but there's always 2 entries
for exactly one startup item.

The interesting thing is, when I check the relevant registry hive, the item
appears there only once.

Does anyone have an idea on where that duplicate entry is coming from? I
even did a search of the registry for the exact command line, and couldn't
find a second entry.

On a somewhat related topic: where in the registry do items go when you
de-select them through MSCONFIG?

The duplicate is alway of one of the entries at:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

but there is no duplicate entry here.



Tom

 

[Tom Hall]

try a freeware called autoruns from sysinternals.com
it may provide additional informaton regarding the entry
and its registry key.....

Lots of information - but I couldn't find anything duplicated anywhere.

The odd thing is, every time I check MSCONFIG, there's a different
duplicate item. Right now there are TWO duplications, but again only one
occurrence in the registry that I can find.

One duplicate has to do with the new Logitech G7 mouse I installed here a
few weeks ago.

One entry is SLIGHTLY different: KHALMNPR.EXE (Part of Logitech's Setpoint
software). One entry shows just the program name, and the one right below
it references the same program, but uses the full path to the exe file.

The other duplicate entry is NeroCheck, both of which appear identical.



Tom

 

[Tom Hall]

Tom,


Is one of the duplicate entries disabled?

No, all the duplicate items in MSCONFIG have checkmarks beside them.

There's also a completely empty startup item which I watched the Setpoint
software install (thanks to Spybot's TeaTimer). There's no information at
all contained in it - but the startup entry exists nonetheless and has a
checkmark by it.

I've now disabled TeaTimer for a while because I suspect that in a few
instances it's been responsible for a startup entry not getting written to
the registry because the system was shutting down and there was no time to
accept or reject the startup entry. I suspect it may have been a cleanup
utility of some kind set to run once at the next system startup.

The KHALMNPR.EXE situation is interesting, because I've just found that
there are TWO copies of this exe file: one in C:\WINDOWS and the other in
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Logitech\khalshared\KHALMNPR.exe, so this
entry at least is explained. I don't know why there should be two entries
of this nature, nor am I inclined at this point to remove one of them until
I find out why the duplicates are appearing in the first place.


Tom

 

[DatabaseBen]

well, it sound then it is
an orphaned and inactive entry that was
duplicated with an active entry
by the parent program was re entered
into the startups.

i don' recall which sofware there
is, maybe systemmechanic that
actually allows you to
delete/clean out the inactive or
orphaned entries from the listing
produced by msconfig.

i don't often use my systemmechanic
anymore since i no longer have problems.
but i think it is the one that cleans up
the msconfig.

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Tom,

When in MSCONFIG, hold the CTRL key and press the (+) sign in the Numeric
Keypad. This sets the columns in MSCONFIG to auto-fit. Check the location of
the startup entries. See if both of the entries are coming from the same
registry location.

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com

Tom,


Is one of the duplicate entries disabled?

No, all the duplicate items in MSCONFIG have checkmarks beside them.

There's also a completely empty startup item which I watched the Setpoint
software install (thanks to Spybot's TeaTimer). There's no information at
all contained in it - but the startup entry exists nonetheless and has a
checkmark by it.

I've now disabled TeaTimer for a while because I suspect that in a few
instances it's been responsible for a startup entry not getting written to
the registry because the system was shutting down and there was no time to
accept or reject the startup entry. I suspect it may have been a cleanup
utility of some kind set to run once at the next system startup.

The KHALMNPR.EXE situation is interesting, because I've just found that
there are TWO copies of this exe file: one in C:\WINDOWS and the other in
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Logitech\khalshared\KHALMNPR.exe, so this
entry at least is explained. I don't know why there should be two entries
of this nature, nor am I inclined at this point to remove one of them until
I find out why the duplicates are appearing in the first place.


Tom

 

[Tom Hall]

Tom,

When in MSCONFIG, hold the CTRL key and press the (+) sign in the Numeric
Keypad. This sets the columns in MSCONFIG to auto-fit. Check the location of
the startup entries. See if both of the entries are coming from the same
registry location.

At the moment, there are no duplicates. The only anomalous entry is a
completely empty one, and it claims to reside in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

However, there is no empty item there, except for the (default) entry at
the top of the list.

Actually, when there were duplicates I checked to see what registry
location was involved and it was always

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run



Tom

 

[Ayush]

Replied to [Tom Hall]'s message {REPLY BELOW} :
-----------------------------------------------------------

At the moment, there are no duplicates. The only anomalous entry is a
completely empty one, and it claims to reside in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

However, there is no empty item there, except for the (default) entry
at the top of the list.

Actually, when there were duplicates I checked to see what registry
location was involved and it was always

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run



Tom

Delete the duplicated entry by MsConfig Cleanup :
http://www.get-in-control.com/msconfig-cleanup/

--
Ayush [ Be ''?'' Happy ]

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