I have WinXP Professional. Where is the list of all the programs that
are loaded into memory when the computer boots up? I would like to
delete a large number from the list because startup has become very
slow. Thank in advance.
On each program you don't want to start automatically, check its
Options to see if it has the choice not to start (make sure you
actually choose the option not to run it, not just a "don't show icon"
option). 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 just for the purpose of
running the minimum number of programs. Despite what many people tell
you, you should be concerned, not with how *many* of these programs
you run, but *which*. Some of them can hurt performance severely, but
others have no effect on performance.
Don't just stop programs from running willy-nilly. 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 at
http://castlecops.com/StartupList.html. If you can't find it there,
try google searches and ask 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.
And by the way, regarding slow startup, my personal view is that the
attention many people pay to how long it takes to boot is unwarranted.
Assuming that the computer's speed is otherwise satisfactory, it may
not be worth worrying about. Most people start their computers once a
day or even less frequently. In the overall scheme of things, even a
few minutes to start up isn't very important. Personally I power on my
computer when I get up in the morning, then go get my coffee. When I
come back, it's done booting. I don't know how long it took to boot
and I don't care.
