Selective Start-Up in Msconfig

[gregrocker]

I was taught by MS tech years ago to edit the msconfig start-up tab down to
bare essentials, using sysinfo.org and google to determine only what is
needed. In my new VISTA computer I did the same thing, then when I had to do
a clean reinstall of the OS, the eMachines tech told me to just uncheck
everything in msconfig because anything absolutely needed (like with the OS,
or driver-related) will load anyway. It seemed he was correct as I have had
no performance issues. However, I have since read that operating in
selective start-up mode on msconfig might make the related files unavailable
for uninstallation and could generate missing files errors if they ever are
reinstated. Due to this and other possible complications it said that
programs and services should be deselected for start-up only within their own
preferences and settings, and that msconfig should NOT be allowed to run in
selective start-up mode except for troubleshooting.

I am hoping others have information about this and whether it is advisable
to run selective start-up in msconfig permanently, especially since I am now
running it with every item deselected with no performance issues, with my
AVG, OS, and NVIDIA apparently all starting on their own. Thanks.

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

Just because an application is inactive would not make its files unavailable
for other processes. If there were an application or service that had a
dependency on another application being active, then there could be an
issue, but you would know that immediately. A good example would be if you
disabled a service that your antivirus application depends on, then the
application itself may not run in real-time scanning mode. You'd have to
initiate the service before the application would run. But, few use msconfig
to disable services for applications they want running.

I run a lot of machines in selective startup mode without any issues of the
type you describe. While it is preferred that you disable an application
through its own options/settings/preferences, if there is none such
available you can override it with msconfig. Frankly, if I find an
application like that I simply remove it anyways. Some argue against using
selective startup for normal runtime based on the fact that msconfig was
designed originally as a troubleshooting tool, not as a means to permanently
alter the system startup axis. My view on this has always been "whatever
works, as long as it works".

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I run a lot of machines in selective startup mode without any issues of the
type you describe. While it is preferred that you disable an application
through its own options/settings/preferences, if there is none such
available you can override it with msconfig. Frankly, if I find an
application like that I simply remove it anyways. Some argue against using
selective startup for normal runtime based on the fact that msconfig was
designed originally as a troubleshooting tool, not as a means to permanently
alter the system startup axis. My view on this has always been "whatever
works, as long as it works".

To Greg: I second all of Rick's advice above (except for the typo
"axis," probably created by his spell checker <g>). Even if its intent
was to be a troubleshooting tool, Msconfig works just fine for
permanent deletion, and there's no reason to avoid it.