Picking when programs load from win.ini

[Guest]

I have a laptop from which I occasionally run a lot of multimedia
applications. For example, I transfer TiVo files now and then, or I use my
TiVo to play MP3s from my computer. However, in order to use the TiVo server
program, TiVo loads a bunch of files into the win.ini / startup list. I feel
that files like these are slowing down my start up time, which is especially
annoying when I take my laptop along to work to give presentations, etc. Is
there a way to create two users that have DIFFERENT subsets of programs load
in the win.ini / startup / applications based on the user (i.e. a "work" ID
and a "multimedia" ID)? Whenever I use "msconfig.exe" to alter the programs
under one user ID, the changes affect both users, not just the one under
which I am making the changes.

Thanks

 

[Wesley Vogel]

That old fossil, known as win.ini, is located in %windir%.

There is not a win.ini for each user. There is only one and it affects the
whole machine.

The win.ini has basically not been used since Windows 3.1. Win.ini is
included with XP for backwards compatibility.

TiVo must be backwards then. Is TiVo a 16-bit application?

Try relocating those start references to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\
CurrentVersion\Windows
Load or Run

Anything in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive only affects the logged on user.

With two different users you can have different settings in
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\
CurrentVersion\Windows
one for each user.

There are corresponding keys for each user in HKEY_USERS\Security ID (SID)
I.e. HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1708537768-1580436667-1202660629-1003
and HKEY_USERS\S-some other bunch of numbers

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

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