I have programs that start on boot that takes time to load. Lightscribe, for
example. I tried to stop them with msconfig, unchecking the appropriate
boxes, "Apply", going to "General" for a normal startup, "Apply" and then
rebooting. Sure enough, the same programs were running when I did a
control-alt-delete a minute later.
How to stop these programs? Thanks very much,
First, note that you should be concerned with *all* programs that
start automatically, not just with those that go into the system tray.
Not all autostarting programs manifest themselves by an icon in the
tray.
On each program you don't want to start automatically, check its
Options to see if it has the choice not to start (make sure you
actually choose the option not to run it, not just a "don't show icon"
option). Many can easily and best be stopped that way. If that doesn't
work, run MSCONFIG from the Start | Run line, and on the Startup tab,
uncheck the programs you don't want to start automatically.
However, if I were you, I wouldn't do this just for the purpose of
running the minimum number of programs. Despite what many people tell
you, you should be concerned, not with how *many* of these programs
you run, but *which*. Some of them can hurt performance severely, but
others have no effect on performance.
Don't just stop programs from running willy-nilly. What you should do
is determine what each program is, what its value is to you, and what
the cost in performance is of its running all the time. You can try
google searches and ask about specifics here.
Once you have that information, you can make an intelligent informed
decision about what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of.
One more point: My personal view is that the attention many people pay
to how long it takes to boot is unwarranted. Assuming that the
computer's speed is otherwise satisfactory, it may not be worth
worrying about. Most people start their computers once a day or even
less frequently. In the overall scheme of things, even a few minutes
to start up isn't very important. Personally I power on my computer
when I get up in the morning, then go get my coffee. When I come back,
it's done booting. I don't know how long it took to boot and I don't
care.