Start-up

[RodA]

It appears that every supplier of Windows programs now adds their program
into Start-up so that their program is running all the time your using your
PC. I've recently been removing some of these programs as the PC was taking
longer and longer to boot up.

I can't see the reason, as am example, for having Office running all the
time, if I want one of the programs in Office it starts very quick from
'cold'. Also Live Messenger, if I don't use messaging does it need to run all
the time? What I am confused about is that I see
C:\Windows\system32\ctfmon.exe in there, I can't see that this is needed to
start Windows as I assume it must be running before it gets to here? I
realise that my anti-virus must be in start-up but is there anything else
that I really need in there?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Rod

 

[Rey Santos]

Try Startup Inspector
http://www.windowsstartup.com/startupinspector.php

Startup Inspector for Windows is a Windows® platform software that helps
both novice and expert user manage Windows® startup applications. Click on
the Consult tools at the top so you will the comments.

Autoruns for Windows v9.57
By Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

This utility, which has the most comprehensive knowledge of auto-starting
locations of any startup monitor, shows you what programs are configured to
run during system bootup or login, and shows you the entries in the order
Windows processes them.
Nothing to install just run autoruns.exe

 

[Shenan Stanley]

It appears that every supplier of Windows programs now adds their
program into Start-up so that their program is running all the time
your using your PC. I've recently been removing some of these
programs as the PC was taking longer and longer to boot up.

I can't see the reason, as am example, for having Office running
all the time, if I want one of the programs in Office it starts
very quick from 'cold'. Also Live Messenger, if I don't use
messaging does it need to run all the time? What I am confused
about is that I see C:\Windows\system32\ctfmon.exe in there, I
can't see that this is needed to start Windows as I assume it must
be running before it gets to here? I realise that my anti-virus
must be in start-up but is there anything else that I really need
in there?

Thanks for any suggestions.

What you need running at startup is up to you. Sometimes it can make things
faster - usually not. Depending on the resources you have - the actual use
of the computer (not startup - don't base your usage performance off your
startup time - that's just unwise) is unaffected.

Go into each of the applications starting at logon/startup and see if there
is a setting to turn off. Remove anything you don't think you need from the
"Startup" folder. Use MSCONFIG to see what else might be starting up you
might not want and try to tell them (inside their own programs/services) not
to start if you believe you don't need them.

Most people are strangely overly concerned with a 2 minute startup vs. a 7
minute startup - when most do not reboot several times a day. While having
things startup does use more resources - if you have them to spare - you
aren't wasting them (in fact, if you have the resources to spare and are not
using them - then you are wasting them.)

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

See http://aumha.org/a/loads.htm

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

It appears that every supplier of Windows programs now adds their program
into Start-up so that their program is running all the time your using your
PC. I've recently been removing some of these programs as the PC was taking
longer and longer to boot up.

I can't see the reason, as am example, for having Office running all the
time, if I want one of the programs in Office it starts very quick from
'cold'. Also Live Messenger, if I don't use messaging does it need to run all
the time? What I am confused about is that I see
C:\Windows\system32\ctfmon.exe in there, I can't see that this is needed to
start Windows as I assume it must be running before it gets to here? I
realise that my anti-virus must be in start-up but is there anything else
that I really need in there?

Nobody can answer that question for you. The choice is yours, not
ours. Here's my standard post on the subject:

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.

 

[Daave]

It appears that every supplier of Windows programs now adds their
program into Start-up so that their program is running all the time
your using your PC. I've recently been removing some of these
programs as the PC was taking longer and longer to boot up.

I can't see the reason, as am example, for having Office running all
the time, if I want one of the programs in Office it starts very
quick from 'cold'. Also Live Messenger, if I don't use messaging does
it need to run all the time? What I am confused about is that I see
C:\Windows\system32\ctfmon.exe in there, I can't see that this is
needed to start Windows as I assume it must be running before it gets
to here? I realise that my anti-virus must be in start-up but is
there anything else that I really need in there?

Thanks for any suggestions.

You asked a general question *and* a specific question. Here is the
answer to your specific question about ctfmon.exe:

http://www.pchell.com/support/ctfmon.shtml

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/282599

Most programs that are well-written will give you the opportunity to
turn off the option to automatically start up in their settings. It is
always advised to do this first before messing around with msconfig. The
reason: If you use msconfig to disable a startup program, it might
reappear there the next time you boot up! So it is always better to
figure out on your own how to disable each particular unwanted program
from starting up automatically. If you run into a snag, post back with
the particular startup (like you did with ctfmon), and maybe someone can
help you. I would only use msconfig as a last resource:

http://netsquirrel.com/msconfig/msconfig_xp.html

As Rey mentioned, there is a (free) program more thorough than msconfig
called Autoruns. Although this is superior to msconfig in that you can
actually *remove* particular registries rather than merely alter them so
particular automatic startups are disabled, there is also much more
potential for real damage to occur! For instance, I recently read a post
where a user who was over-zealous in his trimming disabled the Userinit
Logon Application!

Finally, Shenan raised a good point. Most of the programs use so little
resources and/or RAM that disabling them won't necessarily produce much
improvement anyway! But once in a while, you might indeed find a
resource/RAM hog that is simply not needed to start up every time you
boot up Windows.

 

[db]

there is a freeware from
microsoft called autoruns.

with it you can inspect
a number of things running
including your startups.

however, you can open
the msconfig and inspect
your startups and non
microsoft services as well.

in regards to office running
in the background, the process
is a tiny one which helps launch
office quicker than if you
manually executed it yourself.

my suggestion is to inspect
your startups and services
and begin by disabling all
non microsoft/third party
programs and services.

you will highly likely see
an improvement in
performance with your o.s.

afterwards determine which
third party programs should
be started automatically and
loaded into memory at boot
time.

incidentally, don't forget you
have three levels for starting
programs.

the first is automatically at
boot time.

the second is utilizing your
startup folder under programs.

then the third is to manually
launch the programs.

perhaps, you can do a little
rearranging with the startups
which can help with the
performance.

--
db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces
- @Hotmail.com
- nntp Postologist
~ "share the nirvana" - dbZen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~