STARTUP questions

is it possible for me to post the programs that run at startup here and have you tell me which i really need at startup?

Yeah certainly, but you will find a few variations of what people will say yes and no about, but thats purely dependant on a users requirements and what they have found work for them, but there are many most will agree on the majority of items, so post away and people will advise on what the best ones to keep are.

i can see them in MSCONFIG….. is there a way to "capture them" and print them here?

There may well be, but none I can think of TBH, but the simplest way is probably print screen to capture it as an image and upload it here, or use an image hosting site such as Photobucket (which is free) and post the links back here for us to see them, someone may have a better solution, but thats all I can manage at this stage.

To do a screenshot press and hold ctrl, then press PrtScn (Print Screen abbreviated) once to capture the image without the rest of the desktop, this button is usually near the delete button or function keys, and sometimes uses slightly different letters to abbreviate it, but with this info you should make it out easily enough, then open paint (standard program in m$ OS's) and select edit then paste, the image should open up, if this has worked then click file then save as, select to save in .jpg format, and save to your desktop for ease of finding, then upload the file(s) to here or wherever you decide, hope this helps.

thanks for walking me through how to do that. i will attach it here. a friend looked at this and said "way too many processes running"…..and i'm not sure what they meant, so i'm going the route of starting with the startup screen. i appreciate the help!

Needless to say there are more processes out of sight in that list, but at first look I would say get rid of them all (the ones in view that is), BUT, do be aware of what each offers you incase it's a feature you need, if you want to fully research each in turn to see what it does for you before deciding, then go Here, they list them alphabetically, and you can search as well, but if you use features such as the scroll on the touch-pad, or hot keys, removing some of the entries showing will stop these features from working, so don't rush in.

My best advice is leave msconfig alone, you can do more harm than good with the wrong choices, even BlackViper says don't touch it unless you know what your doing, so I would suggest you get and run WinPatrol, fantastic lightweight program that not only allows you to control your start up items, it also protects your hosts file etc, so I say get this (it's free), then after you launch it click on the start up tab, then simply highlight one line at a time then select disable, this way you can reboot and use your system, and see if it has stopped you from doing certain tasks, if it hasn't then you can remove it completely.

I suggest 1 entry at a time because that way any changes are down to the item you disable, so it's easy to identify and enable it again, the only time you need to leave something disabled is if it keeps adding itself back to the start up list, but using it to see what an entry does for you is a great risk free way to approach this.
But to state the obvious, some features you may not use that often, so it may not show up if you have removed something you need until some weeks down the road, depending on your usage, so hopefully this will help you to make the best choices for your needs, good luck.

i appreciate the advice and will download winpatrol and "take it slow".

i posted this to a different area and haven't rec'd a response.

can you advise on this or is it outside your area of expertise:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
the malware/virus removal forum just helped me through a trojan infection. i followed up by running a defrag.

Volume SQ004214P01 (C:)
Volume size = 55.88 GB
Cluster size = 4 KB
Used space = 36.48 GB
Free space = 19.41 GB
Percent free space = 34 %

Volume fragmentation
Total fragmentation = 20 %
File fragmentation = 40 %
Free space fragmentation = 0 %

File fragmentation
Total files = 90,357
Average file size = 593 KB
Total fragmented files = 2
Total excess fragments = 25,259
Average fragments per file = 1.27

Pagefile fragmentation
Pagefile size = 672 MB
Total fragments = 1

Folder fragmentation
Total folders = 7,546
Fragmented folders = 2
Excess folder fragments = 4

Master File Table (MFT) fragmentation
Total MFT size = 135 MB
MFT record count = 99,520
Percent MFT in use = 71 %
Total MFT fragments = 3

——————————————————————————–
Fragments File Size Files that cannot be defragmented
2 76 bytes \Documents and Settings\Linda\Desktop\My Photos\PAG 08 into 09\PAG fence before and after
3 12 KB \System Volume Information\_restore{ADAE5F4D-3A8F-42F7-8894-D60087AD60B2}\RP622\snapshot
25,243 15.23 GB \Disk Maintenance\Backup.bkf

That looks like a "pretty ordinary defrag"

Run the defrag again in a month or so….some folks recommend defragging every week but unless you are installing and then uninstalling lots and lots of applications..running defrag every month or two should be fine.

When it comes to startups….here's a useful little utility that may help you "prune" things a bit …its a free download from a reputable source….
http://www.malwarebytes.org/startuplite.php
However as always prior to making changes to your system, create a new System restore Point
Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>System Restore…and create a new System Restore Point
Regards
paws

thanks for all your great help!

Do not disable Anti-virus or Firewall. Also, do not disable SynTPH as that is your Synaptics Touchad driver.

Pretty much anything else can be disabled.

I'm more of an "All in" type of guy so I would disable everything I thought I could right off the bat then see what happens. Just make sure you record what is currently starting so you can put it back it needed.

I have trouble spelling the word cautin catuoin cauton … err whatever

Nothing you disable in msconfig Startup will prevent your computer from booting. It will get rid of some convenience things that you may or may not want.

It would also be a good idea to create a new System Restore point before doing any of this and even installing ERUNT to take a complete registry backup.

thanks for all your help!

Let us know how you make out with this. I'd be interested to see what happens and what you end up disabling. Also, disabling something in msconfig may not be the best solution. Once you see what you don't need, it would be good to see if the software itself offers and option to turn that feature off or even decide if you need the software at all, and if not, uninstall it.