Windows Startup Guide

Yes your computer is really taking longer to start these days than it used to. As we all know there seems to be no end to the programs that load when we start our computers. We know that we really don’t need all those automatic software updaters running, and we don’t need some mp3 “make it connect better” application running all the time in the background. Yes, we want those things to run, but only when we ask them to. The questions really are: How do we identify what they are, which ones can we do without and How would we turn them off if we wanted to. That’s what we are going to discuss right now.

Our first step is to find out which programs are auto starting. One source of information is your notification area. That is the section of your desktop where your clock is; in the lower right corner for most of us. All those icons in there represent programs that are running. Not all running programs are shown here though. We need a tool to show us all the programs that are auto starting. I am going to take a huge risk here and make a recommendation. CCleaner. Please read to the end of this page for my explanation of the risk. Google CCleaner or go to www.ccleaner.com, download it, install it, and then click on the tools icon on the upper left side, and click startup. This will show you all the programs that start when you turn on your computer. Don’t be alarmed, we can get rid of most of them.

Now that we have identified the AutoStart programs, which ones can we get rid of and how do we do that? We can get rid of almost all of them. Look under the column labeled “file”. A simple rule of thumb is that anything that starts with “c:\pro…..” is safe to disable, however if the entry starts with “c:\windows” or just has a filename you will want to leave it alone until you research that specific entry. Now, just because it is safe to disable the entries that begin “c:\pro” does not always mean that you will want to, it may be a program that you actually like and want to have start every time you boot up. For example many people want their yahoo messenger to start.

So it really is as simple as that, use the startup tool in CCleaner to find and disable startup programs. Why then did I say it was a risk to recommend that? I have found over the years, that making recommendations about software is always a risky proposition because someone is going to think your recommendation stinks and they have a better one. Or someone will follow your recommendation and they happen to be that one in a million who has some issue that causes the process not to work right.

I am not affiliated with CCleaner in any way; however, I have seen it used successfully by hundreds of the clients of my computer repair business. My clients to whom I recommend this tool tell me, and I agree that the startup tool included with CCleaner is extremely useful. It is user friendly and uncomplicated. It is straight forward and does what it is designed to do. Yes there are other ways to do the job, but this is a simple, effective, non-technical method that can be used by nearly everyone.