How to Disable Startup Programs using Msconfig

When you switch on the computer, it goes through a bootup process where it loads up Windows XP and then the startup programs, before you can begin to use it. Quite often when you install a new program on your computer, it will be configured to automatically load itself and runs in the background, during your computer boot up. Some of these programs are necessary to be loaded as such (example anti-virus programs) while others are not required. If you have installed a number of software over a period of time, there will be an accumulated number of startup programs set to be loaded at startup. This causes two problems. Firstly it makes the bootup process slow and painful. Just imagine yourself staring at the screen waiting for the control to return to you. (during this time, typically you may not be able to do anything until everything has been loaded). The second problem is when too many programs are loaded to run in the background, they eat up your computer memory. Computer memory are limited. and hence if you have too many programs running in nthe background, that means less memory for your CPU to work with. And the result is your Windows operating system becomes painfully slow in operation.

To clean up the Startup process, first determine what programs do not required to be loaded to run in the background. Once you have determine which ones, you can then use the utility program called msconfig to disable the loading process of the programs you have previously selected. To start up the msconfig program, click the Start button, and then click Run... The System Configuration Utility screen will be displayed.

Type the command msconfig into the Open box and click the Ok button. The following screen display will be shown next.

The next thing is to click the Startup tab, and it will show you the programs that are loaded. Typically these programs have the checkmark box for you to tick or untick. Ticked means the program will be loaded on startup. And vice-versa, unticked the program will not be loaded. So you go through the list of program names and untick whatever you don't need to start up on booting. The screenshot will look like this.

Once you have unticked the ones that you previoulsy selected, click the Ok button. You will be prompted to restart your Windows XP. If at this point, you have other programs opened, you need to make sure that they are closed before you restart Windows XP. And if you are not ready to restart Windows XP, you can just skip the Restart process.

When you restart your Windows XP. you will get a message that says you made changes after the first reboot. Just tick the box to choose not to show the message again the next time your restart your computer, and click "OK". The next time you restart your Windows XP, this message will not appear again.

After the booting process has completed, you may noticed that the system tray at the right hand bottom of the screen task bar, no longer show the icons of the program you have previously selected.