so, so slow to start up!

[Duff beer]

My newish laptop takes ages to start up.

I used to have a programme called 'Scottie the dog' or something similar a while ago which was great at showing what progs were running in the background.

Does anyone know if this is still available or if there is something similar?
I think I really need to reduce the number of progs running on start up.

spanks in advance for any advice.

DB...

[blackace]

CTL+ALT+DEL will bring up windows task manager, from there you can see all running processes.

If you want something more advanced you really cant get better than the free and clean applications at:

http://www.sysinternals.com

[frostbite]

There is an excellent free program called What's Running, available from

http://www.whatsrunning.net

[Cypherus]

It has long been a complaint in the computing community that software vendor are not very forth coming with information on what additional services their software installs that ‘START’ at boot and what exactly these services actually do, this can lead to a situation known simply as BLOAT, were your registry and particularly the RUN sections become packed with items all trying to start when you turn on the computer, these often cause the machines start up to become very lengthy, several minutes with some I have come across.

While there are excellent programmes available too let you define these offending services, Windows actually comes with a number of inbuilt tools that let you see what your computer is up to.

If you Click on START…RUN and open the dialogue box then enter the word MSCONFIG the system configuration page will open for you, click on the START-UP tab top open the page that details what utilities, actually start up as the computer boots, , This page will allow you to determine the host program that installed them and if you type the name of the actual .EXE into your browser you will find many sites detailing what they actually do, You also get the chance to stop these utilities from starting at boot by unchecking the box next to the entry,, You will soon determine that most of these items relate to software that for the most part you do not use so can be prevented from starting with no problems, as when you actually want to use that associated program that particular utility will be started for you at that time, I suggest that you tackle this one item at a time, rebooting as you go to define what you can actually do without, always bear in mind though that your firewall and antivirus software will probably be among the items listed and you will always need them to start.

There is an add-on for MSCONFIG that places some additional information and tools on the system configuration menu for you, this includes a running services item which is very useful and can be downloaded free from Microsoft’s website under item number KB906569 or use this link direct:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9689f6e9-aded-44b8-bbbb-beae1b4a4bc9&DisplayLang=en (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9689f6e9-aded-44b8-bbbb-beae1b4a4bc9&DisplayLang=en)

There is also a large number of additional utilities that will allow you to accomplish any number of House keeping and repair tasks to window, again all for free under the Sysinternals banner, compiled for the advanced user community it is still a very useful source of repair and monitoring utilities and programmes users will find invaluable to keeping their computers running smoothly and can be found here:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/default.mspx (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/default.mspx)

Finally there is a school of thought that some users require very tight control over there computers and the number of running processes taking up CPU cycles and memory, as a result some community members have compiled information on this subject that will allow you to pare down your system to an acceptable level, more for the gamer really that requires maximum power from there investment and less interference from Bill Gates inc.

One such is BlackViper, who has kindly compiled a very comprehensive guide to Windows XP Service Configurations and included concise information on what each and every running service actually does along with some stock configurations that you can manually set-up, the document needs reading before you decide what you want to do and can be found here:

http://web.archive.org/web/20041128021034/www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm (http://web.archive.org/web/20041128021034/www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm)

My view is why pay money when you can have if for free.

[Duff beer]

Thanks for the replies chaps, much appreciated.

DB...

[Tarq57]

As others have said, there are plenty of good monitoring programs. But Scotty is alive and well, and I find, easy to use.
http://www.winpatrol.com/cgi-bin/version.pl?&userid=&build=11.0.1.2007:11.0.1.2007&Loc=en

[oldbeefer]

For anyone with slow starting and/or slow running, lots of good advice here: http://www.castlecops.com/t175256-Slow_Computer_Check_here_first_it_may_not_be_malware.html

[Flyingspaniard]

Windows defender is actually not a bad piece of free software.

It has all the same features as scottie the dog and it integrates nicely with windows xp.