Wayne said:
I am a computer tech for a public library. On one of the staff PC’s I am not
able to disable the following things from coming up at startup: My Documents
and the toolbar for Search Assistant on the task bar. Yes I can close My
Documents and change the taskbar toolbars so that Search Assistant no longer
is on the taskbar, but on startup, these items re-appear.
Win XP pro, not SP2.
The staff member whose PC this is has The Weather Channel from weather.com
on her PC, an she wants to keep it. Is this the source of the problem?
Thanks
Is a Windows Explorer window opening with the contents of the "My
Documents" folder displayed?
Is this "Search Assistant" you refer to appear as an icon in the
Notification Area? The Notification Area is the section of the Windows
XP Taskbar where the time normally appears. In earlier versions of
Windows that area was refered to as the System Tray oe Systray.
Make sure Windows isn't shut down with a Windows Explorer window open.
Check that Search Assistant for an option to deactivate loading the
program on Windows startup. That option MAY be on some sort of options
menu or configuration popup.
Right click the start button and explore the C:\Documents and
Settings\USERNAME\Start Menu\Programs\Startup (substitute the
appropriate login for "USERNAME") folder. Shortcuts in this folder could
start applications when the user logs on to the computer. Move unwanted
shortcuts somewhere else. right click the start button again and
"Explore All Users" to check the C:\Documents and Settings\All
Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup folder.
Use the "Run" popup to execute the MSCONFIG program. The MSCONFIG
progeam can also be run from the Windows XP System Information Utility.
The MSCONFIG program features a list of applications with check boxes
that you can blank to disable their launching on startup.
Use an Anti Spyware Application like Ad Aware or Spybot Search and
Destroy to scan that system, and the others, for software that monitors
the user's activities, covertly sends various usage and personal data
back to the developor's server or delivers advertising.
I'm not familiar with The Weather Channel's offering, but any service
that requires a software installation could include components designed
to launch when the computer starts. Some auto launch components are
quite cooperative when deactivated with the measures listed above, but a
few will stubournly reactivate "Launch on Startup" whenever they are
launched manually. Some information sites will refuse to deliver their
information to your computer if an advertising component isn't running
on the computer. As I don't recall downloading any sort of weather
reporting component from "The Weather Channel", I don't know if their
products utilize any of these measures to protect their advertising revenue.
