Start Menu Question

[Gordon Biggar]

I am the sole user of my desktop. Under Documents and Settings\User1 (me),
I have three programs listed under Start Menu\Programs. Is there a reason
for these programs to be listed here?

Under Documents and Settings\All Users, I have more than 40 programs listed
in the Programs folder, most of which are rarely used. Is there a purpose
to all of these listings? Are they somehow in the background, slowing my
computer's speed?

Thanks for any thoughts that may be forthcoming.

Gordon Biggar
Houston, Texas

 

[Bob I]

I am the sole user of my desktop. Under Documents and Settings\User1 (me),
I have three programs listed under Start Menu\Programs. Is there a reason
for these programs to be listed here?

yes, they are installed for you as the user.

Under Documents and Settings\All Users, I have more than 40 programs listed
in the Programs folder, most of which are rarely used. Is there a purpose
to all of these listings?

Yes, they are installed so that any profile you create could use them in
addition to the current profile you use them under.

Are they somehow in the background, slowing my

computer's speed?

Nope, don't worry about them in that regard.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I am the sole user of my desktop. Under Documents and Settings\User1 (me),
I have three programs listed under Start Menu\Programs. Is there a reason
for these programs to be listed here?

Under Documents and Settings\All Users, I have more than 40 programs
listed
in the Programs folder, most of which are rarely used. Is there a purpose
to all of these listings? Are they somehow in the background, slowing my
computer's speed?

Thanks for any thoughts that may be forthcoming.

Gordon Biggar
Houston, Texas

What you call "listings" are shortcuts. They are there for your convenience,
nothing else. You can move them or delete them - it makes no difference
whatsoever to the speed of the system. If you delete a shortcut by mistake
then it becomes a little hard for you to invoke the programm that's behind
it but it does NOT uninstall the program.

 

[DL]

Programs that are installed and are configured to auto start with win (ie
they place a shortcut in the start folder) usually have an option to not do
so when installed. You just have to pay attention when installing a program
to its options.

 

[Gordon Biggar]

Thanks for the education.

But, if deleting all of these shortcuts does not impact how one uses the
computer, I am wondering out loud why it is even necessary to have a Start
Menu folder. If programs that I wish to use on a somewhat frequent basis
have desktop icons, where does the Start Menu come into play? Obviously,
I'm missing something. Maybe I'm confusing the Start Menu with programs
that run when a computer is booted up.

GGB

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Some people prefer the Desktop, others prefer the Start Menu. An obvious
advantage of the Start Menu is that it is immediately accessible without
having to minimise any applications.

Icons located in the Start Menu do NOT start automatically when they
computer is booted up. When you log on, then all items located in the folder
c:\documents and settings\ggb\start menu\programs\startup get executed.

 

[Gordon Biggar]

What touched this off is that I recently installed some backup software.
Now, when the computer boots up, I receive a warning that the system cannot
find a dynamic link library file associated with this software. But, the
software is not even running. Upon investigation, I found a folder under
All Users\Start Menu\Programs. It is not in the Startup folder, however.
This got me to thinking that maybe all of these 40-odd programs were being
executed in some form at the time of booting.

GGB

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Now we're getting to the bottom of things! Run msconfig.exe, then inspect
the tasks under the Startup tab. One of them is likely to be the culprit.
Untick it and the problem should be solved. You can get msconfig.exe from
http://www.svrops.com/svrops/dwnldoth.htm.

 

[Gordon Biggar]

I downloaded msconfig.exe, as you described, and opened the Zip file. The
Readme instructions state to place the two (?) files in the WINNT folder,
and I presume that means the main folder, and not into one of the
sub-folders (e.g., System32).

How does msconfig differ from the Autoruns utility?

GGB

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Msconfig.exe is a native WinXP tool. AFAIK, you only need the .exe file and
you can place it whereever you like, as long as you remember where you put
it or include its folder in the %path%. I don't use Autoruns, hence I cannot
tell you the difference. Presumably Autoruns also enumerates the various
startup tasks, which is exactly what you need to identify the the cause of
the missing .dll file warning.