Programmes running in the background

[GMS]

Could someone please shed some light on the following.

When I run certain Norton or Windows utilities a message comes up stating that I should close all running programmes. When I select CTRL/ALT/DEL I am surprised to see how many are running in the background that I have not opened. These clearly start up automatically when I turn on the computer.

My question therefore is how do I control what starts up and what doesn’t.

My computer is a PII-233, and I do not want to have any programmes running in the background unnecessarily.

I would appreciate your help in solving this matter.

Regards, GMS

[shack]

Go to Start, Run, then type msconfig and press Enter. You can then work through what you want running and what is wasting your resources.

[Pengineer]

Heres a nice little (free) program which allows you to manage whats loaded on startup.
I had loads of little programs running in the background which I couldn't close or remove from startup (direct cd for example), this program allows you to play around and disable them one by one until your happy.
Bootup time halved, and a lot of background junk disabled.
If you want to delete something from the startup it makes you first diable it, then do a test reboot, if all is working fine you can then remove it altogether, so you shouldn't be able to do any damage. http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/stories/info/0,,77594,.html

http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/mica/FarSKid.gif
Pengineer

[ 20 November 2001: Message edited by: Pengineer ]

[GMS]

Many thanks to you both. I have installed the software you mention Pengineer, seems very easy to use. I just wonder if any functions are affected by not allowing all these programmes to start up.

GMS

[Pengineer]

Just try it and see, I played around with it and got it to a point where everything works fine, the programs I removed from startup are still available.
I first tried removing just about everything and saved that config as 'first attempt' or similar, rebooted, noticed one or two snags so re-added some things, found it all working and saved that as current.
I did save the original config as 'original' so if I messed up I knew I could always take it back to where I started.
http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/mica/FarSKid.gif
Pengineer

[StopStart]

Go to Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Information, then Tools/System Configuration Utility.
In the window that opens, click on the "Startup" tab. Within this window are listed all the progs that fire up during start up. Run down the list and remove the tick from alongside any that you don't want then click Apply :D

[Blacksheep]

And if you don't have "System Information" under "System Tools"...? :confused:

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