does anyone know
#1, what is necessary in the msconfig screen
Some services are essential. Don't mess with anything on the services tab.
For the startup tab nothing there is "essential" but some things are very
important such as Anti-Virus, firewall (if a 3rd party firewall is
installed), anti-malware, and any other important utilities you need to have
running.
You need to open Task Manager 9 right click a blank area of the tasbkbar and
choose task manager) and see what's running, then research what's listed
there and what's under the statup tab in msconfig to decide what you want to
run. After you have made an informed decision then stop the unwanted
programs from running.
Here are some links to research the times in task manager:
www.google.com
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm
http://castlecops.com/StartupList.html
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_index.htm
http://www.theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm
To eliminate a program from starting at computer startup, the first step
should be to check in the options for the program you don't want to start
and see if there is a setting to tell it not to run at startup. The next
step is to remove any entries you don't want from the two startup folders:
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
For anything else uncheck their entries in the startup tab of msconfig:
Start | Run | Msconfig | Ok
Another option is to remove the reference to them from one of these keys in
the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
Make sure you have a backup of the registry using a program like ERUNT
before making any changes to the registry.
ERUNT
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/erunt.txt
Installing and Using ERUNT
http://www.silentrunners.org/sr_eruntuse.html
http://www.winxptutor.com/regback.htm
#2, how do I get rid of listing in the msconfig for programs that have
been deleted or that I just don't need...if even possible.
The items in msconfig that are unchecked are located in these registry keys.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\MSConfig\startupfolder
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\MSConfig\startupreg
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\MSConfig\services
Deleting them from these keys will remove them from msconfig, or or download
a fix from:
"Clear Disabled Items from Msconfig Startup", line 148
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm