Computer Performance Part 2

All information on this site is furnished in a general manner and can have errors, oversights and so cannt be expected to cover every specific scenario. Please research any information used with Dell documentation or contact their tech support if any clarification is needed

Using MSCONFIG part 2

On the last post I had given the basic steps to get into msconfig and had gotten to the point where we'd opened the startup tab to see which programs get loaded when Windows starts up.

You can uncheck the items on the list and then if you click the "Apply" button and then the OK or the Close buttons, the next time you start the computer, the unchecked programs will be kept from running. This will not uninstall the program so the programs can usually be opened manually if you want them by finding their program icon. If you determine you do need the program to be run win Windows starts, you can open the program, recheck the box next to it, click Apply and OK/Close and then the next time you restart the computer it will be loaded again.

The next step is to determine which programs to uncheck and which ones to leave. The programs you can safely disable to free up resources are instant messagers and media players (yahoo messager, AIM, MSN messager, etc.), media players (movie and music playing software like iTunes, realplayer, qttask aka quicktime), and adobe reader and associated programs. I recommend leaving any programs that seem to be associated with your computer's security (antivirus, firewall programs for example) except in special circumstances like if you're troubleshooting the security program itself, you have multiple conflicting security programs, etc. If you're going to disable your security program/s, I'd recommend disabling your network adapter/wireless card or unplugging your ethernet cable prior to restarting the computer.

Determing what the different listings are from the startup tab can some times be difficult and take some research. I'll mention a few things here to get started but will be covering this topic in more depth in the next post. The first thing you can look at is the location listing next to the list of programs. It's listed under the column named "command". It tells you where the program loads from, and some times that's enough to tell what the program is. Some of the directory listings are long so you may need to hover over the dividing lines between the sections and then drag the section open further to see the full path.