Deleting start-up programs?

[WendyW]

I've got a few old programs that automatically load on
start up and run in the background. 11 icons are
displayed in the tool bar at the lower right corner of my
screen and at least 4 or 5 of them are unnecessary. In
Win98 there was a way to open a list and delete the
unnecessary ones. Can this be done with XP?

I think start-up takes a long time because its loading
all this junk that I don't use and I'm sure its eating up
operating resources too.

 

[Patrick]

Hi WendyW:
Go to Start. go to Run and type: msconfig
This will bring you to a panel of start up options, go to the last panel
Startup and uncheck the programs that you do not want to start up. You may
get a message when you reboot that you are in Selective Startup but that is
OK, just accept and check the do not notify me of this again or something
like that.
Patrick

 

[DL]

Junk you dont use?
There is an add/remove programs dialogue

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

In

I've got a few old programs that automatically load on
start up and run in the background. 11 icons are
displayed in the tool bar at the lower right corner of my
screen and at least 4 or 5 of them are unnecessary. In
Win98 there was a way to open a list and delete the
unnecessary ones. Can this be done with XP?

I think start-up takes a long time because its loading
all this junk that I don't use and I'm sure its eating up
operating resources too.

On each program you don't want to start automatically, check its
Options to see if it has the choice not to start. 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 for the purpose you
stated. Most of us boot only once a day or so, and it makes no
sense to save a extra minute or two booting by getting rid of
something that may be valuable to you.

However, some (but not all) of these programs, not only take time
to start, but can impact your performance all day long. 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 get more information about these with google
searches and by asking 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.

 

[Kelly]

Hi,

Check for an option to not having the icon load in the System Tray via the
program(s) in question.

Other options for removal:

Go to Start/Run and type in: msconfig. Go to the Startup Tab and uncheck
accordingly. Then run this script to remove the disabled items from the
registry.

Clear Disabled Items from Msconfig Startup (Line 148)
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

Or...remove the runkeys from here: Start/Run/Regedit

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Troubleshooting, Removing and/or Cleaning Add or Remove Programs
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_a.htm#addremove

Troubleshooting the Notification Area
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_n.htm#na