start up programs

[Rocky 2]

What programs must be included in the start up, and is it safe to
uncheck everything else. In other words bare bones start up. When nwe
want to use the unchecked programs, how do we do it manually. TIA
XP Home

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

In

What programs must be included in the start up,

As far as Windows is concerned, nothing. THe only things needed
are those *you* need. Things like your anti-virus program,
firewall, etc., are obvious, but you'll need to evaluate the
others for yourself.

and is it safe to
uncheck everything else.

It's safe, but I wouldn't do it. 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.

In other words bare bones start up. When nwe
want to use the unchecked programs, how do we do it manually.

Just as you do any other program--run it from a desktop shortcut,
from Start | Programs, or find the exe file in My Computer and
run it from there.

 

[Rocky 2]

Thanks Ken for your very detailed explanation.
And thank you oneheli for that url, I sent it along to the pc.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

In

Thanks Ken for your very detailed explanation.
And thank you oneheli for that url, I sent it along to the pc.

You're welcome. Glad to help.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for this post, I have a similar question: I have a program that I do
not want to open when my computer starts up, but I don't know where to
"uncheck" it, as Rocky 2 has mentioned. Can someone let me know where I can
go to determine which programs to start and which to stop? Thanks!

 

[Vinay Sastry]

Click on start -> run type in msconfig and click ok. Under the startup tab
you should be able to see the list of items that run on startup.

Unchech the one you dont want to start