Startup msconfig (XP w/ SP2)

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Is there any way to permanently stop some of the items that start up each time I start the computer?
I have gotten sick of doing the “msconfig” routine every time I sit down at this machine.
I have 41 items that will start if I don’t kill some of them.
When I start the machine, I am not online, if that matters.
And, for the record, I am timid about fiddling with the registry.

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It would help if you told us which items keep on coming back against your will.

You may have malware on your PC. Check out these star posts:
Anti Adware / Spyware / Hijack
Tutorials & Links to Detection & Removal Tools
Software Firewall: Why use it / Where to get it

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For a complete listing of what you can, should and shouldn’t remove from startup and how to do it, checkout BlackViper’s Page on the subject. It will give you a much better understanding and control over your startup sequence and what loads at startup. HTH.

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And, further to what Hans said, if you UN-CHECK something in MSCONFIG, you should not have to keep doing so. It should remain dormant unless you, or some MALWARE is turning it back on each time. We need more specific information.

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Well I tried to send a screenshot, but got “file too big”, sorry about that.
I’ll try again without adding any text.

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Try this:
1) Open the screenshot in Paint or another graphics program
2) Crop it to the relevant part (no more than 640 x 480 pixels)
3) Save it as a .png file.

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I had same problem – until I noticed that I’d saved the screen shot as a .bmp – far too big for the Lounge’s 100k max. I resaved as a .jpg and problem solved! HTH

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thanks!

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Which are the items you don’t like?

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Look like an ordinary task list. Nothing unusual or out of the ordinary.

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I dont want to argue, but if it’s ordinary, why can’t I get online without disabling about 20 items on the list?
Is there another reason I don’t know about?
When I had Win98SE, I could stop everything but systray and one other (can’t remember – something about registery) – –
Why do so many things have to start up in XP………especially about music, which I don’t ever use online anyway.
It’s frustrating, to say the least.

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I repeat my earlier assertion that if you un-check something in the MSCONFIG list and it won’t stay un-checked, you’ve either got some malware or a supposedely-legit program that’s acting like malware by turning itself back on! Since your screenshot was of Processes, rather than MSCONFIG, let me just use SOUNDMAN.EXE as my example. If you find that in MSCONFIG and un-check it, does it re-check itself when you reboot the computer? You’re in for some detective work here my friend, to find out what each item of concern is, how and where it’s being loaded, such as your Startup entry in the Start Menu or in the options/preferences of the program itself and possibly the Add/Remove of Control Panel to get rid of offending applications that you don’t want. I don’t know how these things got there, but you’ve got a possible load of “housekeeping” ahead of you.

What you do need to be careful of, which may say something about your point on Win98 v. WinXP, there are items in that Processes list that DO NEED to be running, like multiple instances of svchost.exe or explorer.exe. I don’t know why, but just because… Many of the items, I can’t comment on, for instance it looks like you’re running AVG antivirus program and I have no recent experience with it, so I don’t know if it’s contributing to your problem or not. Can we talk about specific items in MSCONFIG and what happens when you turn them off? Lastly, remember that after you turn something off in MSCONFIG, you will get a “warning” message when you reboot, but if you tell it not to remind you, it will stop.

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Edited by Bigaldoc to add URL code.[/i] See the Quick Guide or 1-Click TagPanel.[/size]

If you go to http://www.systernals.com/%5B/url%5D and download their free autorunsv7.00, this program will give you a really complete view of just what is starting and loading in your computer. After you have run the program for the first time, click on view and tick everything except “hide signed microsoft entries” and then click refresh or press f5. You will now have a much more thorough view of just what is starting up,where it is and which program is calling it. HTH Graham.

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Autoruns is a good (great) recommendation and has been pointed out by other Loungers in the past as well, but a bit of caution for Rabee: [indent]

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…click on view and tick everything except “hide signed microsoft entries”…

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[/indent] in my opinion is a bit much for someone initially trying to solve a basic startup problem, as it will inundate you with stuff that one “usually” doesn’t have to be concerned about. Don’t misunderstand, it’s good info and I’m sure comes in handy but to start with, I’d use the defaults and have my initial go at the problem.

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[indent]

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why can’t I get online without disabling about 20 items on the list

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[/indent]This is the first time in the thread that you have mentioned that you can’t get online. Is that what this question is about ??? You have to disable about 20 of these 41 processes before you are able to get online and you don’t know why they all need to start in the first place ?? Please be a bit more clear about what the problem is and what you would like to be happening. Also, if the problem is not being able to get online, then what type of internet service do you have and what happens when you try to go online ??

Windows 98SE is comprable to Windows XP like Windows 3.1 was to Windows 95. They aren’t in the same ballpark. You can’t compare the two. XP is far more complex and does so much more as a basic OS with no add-ons. To get the same functionality from Windows 98 you have to add a bunch of third party applications and utilities. Since the PC’s of today have the power to handle all the “extras” in the OS, it doesn’t hurt performance to allow them to run in the background. Now, if one of them running is causing you a problem, then it must be isolated and shut down or modified. A bit more work, but the tradeoff for all the nice features in XP. Now, let’s find that process that’s causing you trouble.

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I downloaded the page that helped weed out some of the junk, and that seemed to help. I also discovered through two disk cleanups that I had some corrupted
files. I wish they would tell you which ones, but Windows keeps that a secret. Now, I can get online, and will leave the rest of the startup items alone before I screw up something else. Thanks for all the good stuff.

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[indent]

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Windows keeps that a secret

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[/indent]rabee too.

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If I can just throw my hat into this… When you say ‘do the “msconfig” routine every time’ what exactly do you do? The reason I’m asking is because I think there may be a bit of confusion at to what msconfig actually is. Why? Because first you mention that you have to do whatever it is you do every time (and I can’t think of any piece of malware that would just replace everything you disable in msconfig), and secondly because you attached a screenshot of the processes list from task manager, rather than a screenshot of msconfig..

Apologies if I’m wrong here, but please can you let me know how you run msconfig?

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