Pointers on what to delete from MSCONFIG "startup" tab (slow performance as of late)

today | self

[7.62 x 51mm]

Uncheck WinAmp; you can always start that manually. I can't scroll down to see what else is in there.

[7.62 x 51mm]

Have you run Norton defrag, cleansweep? How about getting spyware and adware off the HD?

[Dashing Dasher]

I would check for viruses and spyware before messing with my system software...

[jdm]

I can't scroll down to see what else is in there.

Thanks. I figured I could uncheck WinAmp. Everything you can't see is already unchecked.

[alnitak]

That's WinAMP agent, it doesn't use any significant CPU cycles.

You don't really give enough information to help diagnose what "slow" means. Deleting items from your Startup menu will probably only slightly speed up the boot process.

"Slow" probably means something is using up the CPU cycles, or disk access has become slow, or something is using up your net bandwidth.

I would advise you open Task Manager and see which process is taking up the CPU cycles. If there is something there you don't recognise it is probably malware and you will need to get something to kill it. You can minimise task manager to the tray and monitor it continuously.

You may want to defrag your hard disk, though in my experience it seems to make minimal difference on NTFS. Cleaning out the cr*p, like IE's cache and the temp directory, seems to do a better job.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Go to this website and lookup exactly what an item is before you uncheck it in msconfig. I clean mine out once a week but I always check first. This site will give you advice on whether to eliminate it or not.

[jdm]

"How about getting spyware and adware off the HD?"

I use all of software(s) listed below and my performance is still near a crawl, immediately following boot up. For instance, when my desktop appears, and I click on an icon, it can take up to 2 minutes for a program to start. I get the twirling hourglass for a good 90 seconds.

Help for viruses and malware:

 

 Ad-Aware ... Spybot ... Peper Uninstaller ... HijackThis... CWShredder ... Spyware Blaster ... IE Spyad ... Free online Virus scan ... AVG AntiVirus ... LSPfix ... How to Show Hidden Files ... How to boot into Safe Mode ... How did I get infected in the first place?

[alnitak]

it can take up to 2 minutes for a program to start

OK, it looks like you are using XP: open Task Manager, sort the processes by CPU, and start one of these slow programs. What happens to the top of the process list? Is there an abnormal amount of disk activity? Is the program slow to use once it is up an running?

[jdm]

Thanks for taking the time and effort to type all of that out. I arranged my processes in a screen grab below, from most usage to least usage. I wonder why there's so much stuff going on in the background (and how to kill it).

[jdm]

Thanks, Sam. I'll check out that site. Appreciate it.

[jdm]

Thanks again for responding. Whenever I open up and try to sort by "CPU" I only get "00" next to each item (most of the time). Starting Word or PowerPoint gets the "processes" tab of the task manager to go a little crazy, but it's hard to say what exactly it's doing. It's too fast to watch all at once, otherwise I'd be able to report back what it's doing. Thank you again for your help.

[demlosers]

If there is a process you do not want unchecked, you could reset process(es) run priorities lower or higher under "processes" in "Task Manager". Good info. in post #6

Right now, I'm running Ad-aware with its process priority set to "low." Ad-aware loves to eat up CPU time.

[travelagent]

That is an awesome site. Thanks for sharing.

TA

[jdm]

"Cleaning out the cr*p, like IE's cache and the temp directory, seems to do a better job."

CCleaner does a good job at this. I run it several times a day.

[alnitak]

That was quick! You have arranged by memory rather than CPU....looking down the CPU column nothing is taking any significant %, unless it is off the bottom.

You aren't atcually running very much - Firefox, Internet Explorer too (2 windows as well!), Irfanview, Nvidia control panel I think...I guess the av*.exe is some sort of antivirus. The svchost.exe processes are to run NT services, these are programs that run in the background as soon as you start the computer.

FYI, I am running far more than that on a Pentium 2 300MHZ with 192MB of RAM and response is good even though CPU usage is up at 100% at the moment due to a big WinRAR decode.

Sort by CPU, and tell us what happens to this list when you start one of the programs (and do you HEAR a lot of disk activity?).

I am going to get something to eat now, will be back in an hour or so...

[jdm]

"If there is a process you do not want unchecked, you could reset process(es) run priorities lower or higher under "processes" in "Task Manager"

I get a warning message when trying to change priority of process(es). The warning says changing the priority may result in system instability. What the hell, I already have system instability!

[alnitak]

Starting Word or PowerPoint gets the "processes" tab of the task manager to go a little crazy, but it's hard to say what exactly it's doing.

You should see WinWord.exe near the top, and the anti-virus will probably kick in too. Nothing else.

It sounds like you have a fairly new machine...FYI on my LAPTOP at work WinWord starts in less than 1 second.

[jdm]

"System Idle Process" is the only entry under "CPU" column which is not zero. "System Idle Process" bounces back and forth between 97 and 99. When I start a program I don't hear any disc activity whatsoever. That's why I'm surprised I have performance issues. Thanks for your help and I hope you enjoyed your lunch!

[demlosers]

You should be alright changing processes that are not 'windows system processes.'