Without any tweaking you can boost your XP or Vista start up time and overall system speed. Take a look at your notification area (on your desktop right side bottom) and you see most of the application that start during Windows Startup. How many of them do you use daily? Does Quick Time and Acrobat Reader need to search for updates daily?. Do you need Messenger right after start up?,…. More items you see there, slower your startup gets! Some items do not even have a try icon they run in the background and use your system resources without any reason.
I will present you 3 freeware applications that can help you to handle the start up items. All of them do use very less resources and have a big impact on your overall system speed. I have used them with XP and I am using them now with Vista. The first two, Autoruns and System Control Panel were designed for XP, however both run under Vista.
Autoruns is a great tool to identify what programs are configured to run during system bootup or login and much more. You have the option to disable items or delete them and to verify them to name a few options.
System Control Panel comes handy if you want to change the behavior of start up items by selecting if you want to run them for all users or only your account as well you will be able to disable items or delete items.
Startup Monitor, should be used once you have set up all your start items with the applications I did mention earlier. This little fellow monitors in the background any activity that want to add a startup key into your registry and pop up to ask you for permission to do so, i.e. when you install new software. Some Firewalls do that job already however not all.
XP and Vista’s Msconfig and Windows Defender, can be used to control start up items, but they are no powerful as the trio of the above mentioned tools.
Note: System startup items and Antivirus, Firewall application start up items should not be altered as it could cause system instability.
AutoRuns for Windows v8.61 by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell
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This utility, which has the most comprehensive knowledge of auto-starting locations of any startup monitor, shows you what programs are configured to run during system bootup or login, and shows you the entries in the order Windows processes them. These programs include ones in your startup folder, Run, RunOnce, and other Registry keys. You can configure Autoruns to show other locations, including Explorer shell extensions, toolbars, browser helper objects, Winlogon notifications, auto-start services, and much more. Autoruns goes way beyond the MSConfig utility bundled with Windows Me and XP.
Autoruns’ Hide Signed Microsoft Entries option helps you to zoom in on third-party auto-starting images that have been added to your system and it has support for looking at the auto-starting images configured for other accounts configured on a system. Also included in the download package is a command-line equivalent that can output in CSV format, Autorunsc.
You’ll probably be surprised at how many executables are launched automatically!
Autoruns works on all versions of Windows including Windows XP 64-bit Edition (for x64) and Windows Server 2003 64-bit Edition (for x64).
Download Autoruns and Autorunsc (490 KB)
Startup Control Panel by Mike Lin
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Startup Control Panel is a nifty control panel applet that allows you to easily configure which programs run when your computer starts. It’s simple to use and, like all my programs, it’s very small and won’t burden your system. A valuable tool for system administrators!
Startup Control Panel is compatible with all modern versions of Windows through Windows XP.
Download Startup Control Panel 2.8 (59kb)
StartupMonitor
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StartupMonitor and StartupMonitor64 are small utilities that run in the background and watch for applications attempting to register themselves to run at Windows startup.
The spiritual successor to Mike Lin’s excellent, but unfortunately neglected, StartupMonitor application for Windows, StartupMonitor and StartupMonitor64 provide the same functionality, but with a less intrusive interface. And, StartupMonitor64 provides native Windows x64 support.
Download StartupMonitor x86 Version This is the 32-bit release of StartupMonitor, compatible with Windows 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista 32-bit.
Download StartupMonitor x64 Version This is the 64-bit release of StartupMonitor, compatible with Windows XP x64 and Vista x64 editions.
Offical Website
As an alternative you can try VistaManger which does more or less the same as the above 3 applications; however not for free.
Vista Manager - The Best Tuning and Optimizing Utility for Windows Vista!
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Vista Manager is the powerful software tool to tweak and optimize your Windows Vista, it bundles more than 30 different utilities in one and help your system faster and more stable, secure and personal!
Download the Free 15-Day Trial Version
Enjoy and leave your feedback here!
July 6th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
nice blog
July 12th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
hi, hi, hi! Beautiful site.