I recently tried performing maintenance on my computer. During the scan disk process, I kept getting a message that scanning was being interrupted. When I pressed alt-ctl-del, I found a lot of programs were running from start up.

Other than individually closing these programs via alt-ctl-del, is there a way to prevent these programs from booting up at start up? Also can you tell me what programs I would need to keep? (I seem to recall maybe using the msconfig function?)

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

There are several good sites that list individual startup programs - what are they? - Do you need them? - etc.

One I like is Paul Collins' startup applications page. I would suggest you read through the site, then download the "Startup" program. You can then use that program and its search function to find all the programs in your startup list.

For most Windows Operating Systems, you can use:
Start/Run
(type in) msconfig
Click: OK

Click the "Startup" tab. By unchecking an item, you will prevent it from starting up automatically. Doing this does not effect the program itself, it can still be started manually from the program menu list (or a desktop shortcut). Once you have "OK'd" your selections, you will need to restart your computer to complete the process. If you wish to reset a program, just recheck the item, then OK the change and restart the computer.

Obviously, you should not disable vital programs like your firewall or anti-virus programs.

I hope this helps!

Dwight

Just a note.... msconfig is not available for Windows 2000 Pro. It is in Windows 98, not sure about Windows ME it is also available in Windows XP, both the Home and Pro versions.