Start – up programs

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[2000 XP SP2] I am aware that the issue of computers running slow is probably one of the most frequently asked questions on forums but I would appreciate being permitted to ask if one of the reasons is having too many programs loading at start up. From the attachment, what if any programs could be left asleep to help remedy this problem & what else can a novice do to help speed up a computer that is running even slower than a silver surfer’s mind [& body for that matter?] If some of them can be prevented from running automatically, how do I effect the changes? Thanks to advice from this forum I was quite chuffed to have successfully moved the rather large “My Documents” folder from the “C” drive to the back-up “D” which freed up a fair amount of space but I did not notice any significant difference in the speed of the computer. Regards.

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It’s hard to recommend exactly what you might eliminate from running at startup.
Of course, you should leave things like svchost, spooler, explorer and others alone since they are OS system files that are required.
I note that AVG is using a lot of resources but that’s your anti-virus program. You might try to google each of the more cryptic file names to get a clue as to what program they belong to and if you consider them necessary to be run from the start or if you can run them only when you want.

A GOOD program to both investigate just about everything that runs at startup and also to use to easily prevent them from starting ( most times ) just by unchecking a box is AUTORUNS
It will also give you a clue as to what is starting them by showing that it is owned by “such and such” program.
You can uncheck one at a time to see what effect it has and if needed go back in and check them to place them back in the starting lineup.

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In addition to what Bob said.

The Autoruns is very powerful, and lists a lot of entries.

To prevent mistakes that can have real bad consequences; after you download the program and run it, check the menu option:

Options | Hide Microsoft Entries

This will exclude Microsoft entries, most will belong to the OS. Later one can *in certain cases” have a closer look at the MSFT entries also, but that is NOT recommended. So, indeed take a look at the program but at first only look at non MSFT entries, but perhaps first follow Bob’s first good tip: a little Google.

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Here are some comments. The entries that I don’t mention are Windows system files, you should leave them alone.

psi.exe – Secunia PSI is a very useful program, but you don’t have to keep it running all the time. You can run a scan from time to time, for example once a week, then right-click the program’s icon in the lower right corner of the screen and select Exit from the popup menu.

wweb32.exe – WordWeb is a legitimate program, but do you need it to be active all the time? If not, you might disable it.

TeaTimer.exe – the realtime component of Spybot Search & Destroy; leave it alone.

PBDriverMonitor – do you have a Packard Bell PC? Leave this one alone.

msmsgs.exe – Do you use Instant Messenger or the like? If not, you can disable the messenger service.

NMBgMonitor.exe – belongs to Nero, leave alone if you use Nero.

jusched.exe – Java update scheduler; leave alone.

zlclient.exe, vsmon.exe – ZoneLabs firewall; leave alone.

brs.exe, PDVD8Serv.exe – related to Cyberlink PowerDVD, leave alone.

avgtray.exe, avgscan.exe, avgemc.exe, avgrsx.exe – all part of AVG Antivirus; leave alone.

taskswitch.exe – it’s up to you to decide whether you want to use this PowerToy.

E_S4I0T1.exe – belongs to an Epson printer; leave alone.

msimn.exe – Outlook Express, an e-mail program.

driverscanner.exe – a useful utility, but do you need it to be running all the time?

wuauclt.exe – Windows automatic updates, leave alone.

aawservice.exe – belongs to LavaSoft AdAware. Leave alone if you want to keep AdAware.

ioloServiceManager.exe – belongs to System Mechanic. Do you really need this?

mDNSResponder.exe is a non-essential process associated with iTunes; you can disable it if desired.

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Sincere thanks to you all for taking the time to enlighten me about this issue. I shall certainly download and install Autoruns and give it a go as this tip enlightens me on two counts. (1) It
lists all that is running and (2) enables me to disable those that have been identified as Not essential. To clarify the point Hans made about me using a P B computer; No I am using one that is without any recognizable name, in fact there is none on the exterior of the base unit. It was just one of a network of computers originally installed in a school then when upgraded were sold off as a lot in some auction. Not exactly a cutting edge model but despite being sold on for under £100 it has never given me a moments trouble so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. As I said, rather slow but I guess I am the cause of that due to the stuff I have crammed on to the HD. I sure would appreciate it if one of you guys lived near so as just a few minutes in front of the screen would tune up the innards to run at their full potential. Regards gentlemen.

ps. I have just followed the directions, opened Autorun, ticked the “Hide MS entries” but they all still show OR am I mistaken being ignorant as to what the abbreviations OS & MSFT stand for. Shalom

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Dave, if you check that option, you have to hit F5 to refresh the display (or File > Refresh) or restart the program.

Cheers,

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Dave,
Paul is right. As in many things, the view is static. To see a change made on the Options menu one must refresh the list.

As Paul said; press F5, or menu File | Refresh, or press the Refresh button on the toolbar (to the right of the Save button, second from left). The settings will “stick”, stay put, if you restart as Paul said.

Among the listed entries, the ones on the tab “Logon” should perhaps be of most interest to you.

As usual when using a program such as AutoRuns it is best to first check if there is a possibility to disable a certain feature from within the unwanted program, such as a program running in the background, perhaps with an icon in the Notification Area for easy access of settings.

Sometimes that isn’t possible from within the program; one then has to decide if it is possible to disable a certain part of it or the autorun feature, such as with AutoRuns, or if one should uninstall the program.

If you decide to later on uninstall a program, either one you have disabled completely, or one which has components that you have disabled earlier, with AutoRuns, it is good to enable the program/component before you uninstall the program. Otherwise one can get problems during the uninstall process, or later on if the component is enabled in AutoRuns or similar, Windows will complain not finding the program.

Paul,
Thanks. I got a little too fast there and missed to mention that.

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Improving system performance is finding the right balance between hardware & software. You need to tell us more about the hardware you have – CPU, RAM, HD size & usage. You can use a tool such as the for home use SIW | System Information for Windows by Gabriel Topala to find that information. Also, what kind of performance issue(s) do you perceive – long boot times, long program load time, slow response online, slow switching between multiple applications, erratic mouse movement, slow video redraws, etc.?

Joe

--Joe

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Joe,

I too use SIW and your post prompted me to download a newer version of the stand-alone edition. At the end of the download AVG detected a Trojan embedded in the program. I haven’t yet followed up on the validity of the threat but wanted to warn anyone contemplating using SIW to take precautions.

Cheers,

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It would surprise me if this was not a false positive (with the free edition of AVG?), because there were no complaints at home, where I have ZoneAlarm Internet Security. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware says it’s clean, and if I say nothing further it will mean that Spybot Search and Destroy and Ad-Aware have also come up with no problems with SIW…

I will try at work tomorrow, where we have AVG Network Edition (and the less said about recent update problems with this, the better…)

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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Thanks for all the comments, I just type a lengthy response to the various points made and somehow deleted the xxxxxxxx thing as I was doctoring some screen shots for attaching so I must try to remember what I had written. Paul; being a novice I am most always bewildered by the numerous abbreviations that you experts use so when you wrote, Among the listed entries, the ones on the tab “Logon” should perhaps be of most interest to you. I clicked the said tab but what popped up meant nothing to me. How should it interest me? The point about re-enabling any prog / component before attempting to uninstall anything was especially noted. As for what ways the computer is slow, the boot up time is little different from usual but the main delays seem to be when say; I minimize all open files then click on an icon for the purpose of deleting or opening it, it takes an age for the pane with the “Delete” tab in it to appear or the file to open. As for the questions about CPU, RAM HD size etc. please see the two attachments. If the amounts of free space on the “C” & “D” drives are really significant than I suppose the details in the screen shots will probably have some relevance to my question.

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Second screen shot: –

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Others will probably chime in on the software as well on this, your hardware. Nothing wrong there for a Windows XP system. You have enough RAM memory; your processor is an AMD Sempron (1.5 GHz is OK, but not fast today ). The Sempron is a slower version with smaller memory caches (as seen in you screen shot) than the Athlon and Athlon XP for that motherboard. The processor socket for that motherboard (Socket A (462)) is no longer used and faster CPUs are produced, but you already know that it’s old. And as a refurbished PC it is good.

But the hardware “bottleneck” isn’t RAM memory, harddrive capacity but the processor. Not much to do there if you can’t find an, let’s say, “Athlon XP” processor for that motherboard. But they are no longer on the market. Then one should remember that such a small change not always shows in a faster PC in day to day use. So look at your software.

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Your system should run XP just fine. The issue may be with running multiple applications or multiple copies of the same application. The AMD Sempron PC is a lesser performant version of other AMD processors. The same as the Intel Celeron is to other Intel processors. The way that these processors fall down in performance is in I/O. Because of smaller cache sizes and a generally slower bus speed systems with a Sempron will not perform as well when I/O (disk activity) is significant. It will be significant when you run multiple applications at once. The effects you can have are probably limited by looking at programs that load when the PC boots. You’ll probably have better luck by limiting the number of programs that you have running at the same time.

Joe

--Joe

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As ever….. thanks for all the responses… I am aware that my computer is not the top of the range by any means therefore can’t expect it to run like one. It does all I want it to do except that it is not as fast as it used to be…. a bit like me…. everything works (well almost everything) but just not as efficient as it used to and gradually gets slower as the day progresses. Cheers .

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[indent]

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…and gradually gets slower as the day progresses…

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[/indent]As do I also, I hate to admit. You can reboot the computer to clean up memory status and other stuff, but I’m afraid MY only reboot is a few hours in the BED!

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If you are like many of us as you’ve become more comfortable with the PC you have more programs running simultaneously. You probably also have more program running in the background too. New versions of programs generally require more resources than the version they replace as more features and functions are added. All this contributes to a general slowing down as you ask the system to do more & more.

Joe

--Joe

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Dave,
I’ll answer since it was I who mentioned the “Logon” tab, so I’ll take responsibility for that.

What I meant was: when started the AutoRuns program scans the PC for entries containing information about what should run at system start or login. All these entries are listed on the first tab shown, called appropriately “Everything”.

It lists everything; from the simple “startup folder” you have in your user profile (the one that is merged with the “startup folder” for all users of the PC and then presented on your Windows Start menu as the “Startup” group.), to the most obscure little entry in the Windows registry.

BTW not many program uses the startup folder nowadays, so yours may be empty, my folder is; but it’s nifty to be able to easy autorun something of your own choice, just put a link in the folder. But now we wanted fewer autoruns …

The other tabs lists the different categories that together make the “Everything”-list; such as a Logon category, Internet Explorer add-ons, Explorer add-ons etc. Sorting it in different categories and presenting them on different tabs makes it easier to work with a specific problem.

Since your concern was start-up and slow PC, looking at third-party applications installed (several were mentioned by Hans from the screen shot you added) is a good thing, apart from hardware. Most of those applications can be found in the entries listed on the “Logon” tab. That is why I mentioned it.

The “Logon” tab show programs that run every time you log on. Many are found in the registry at the following key:
HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun

It also lists the aforementioned startup folders in the user profiles such as:
C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersStart MenuProgramsStartup
C:Documents and Settings Start MenuProgramsStartup

But the “Logon” tab can list several other places as well.

If they are empty they are not shown in the list unless you select: Options | Include Empty locations.

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Hans,
You’re probably aware of this site that has a comprehensive list of startup applications, but for others who might not know, go to Sysinfo.org. As of April, almost 17,000 applications listed.

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Thanks!

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You might also be interested in trying an app like the Process Security Manager – even on a short-term basis – to discover more about what owns what running process, and what each process does.

Alan

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