Community Newsletter: Q&A: 7/02/04 Cleaning out those unwanted msconfig files

7/02/04 Cleaning out those unwanted msconfig files

by Lee Koo (ADMIN)  - 7/1/04 1:52 PM

(Note to our readers: If you are going to take on the task of editing your Windows registry, MAKE SURE back up your registry in case you do something wrong and also be that you are familiar with files you are planning to delete. You don't want to delete a file that is critical to your system; that can really wreak havoc in your computer. So be cautious and know what you are deleting before proceeding! Delete files and edit the Windows registry at your own risk. Thank you.)


Thank you Dustin and all the participants in this week’s answer!
Make sure you check out all the honorable mention below and the utility recommendations in the following posts I encourage all of you who have more tips or questions on this topic to post below. This way we can all learn more together.

Thanks again everyone!
-Lee Koo
CNET Community



Question:

How do I clear or clean out my Windows XP msconfig selection
start-up menu? There're a lot of old programs that have been
deleted off my PC that still show up there.

Submitted by Drew S. of Baltimore, Maryland


Answer:

Hi Drew. This one is a piece of cake!

A word of warning first, this may require you to edit the registry. Doing this incorrectly can cause permanent damage to your operating system, and should therefore be done with extreme caution. Follow these steps to make a backup copy of your registry in case something does go wrong.

1) Click the Start Menu.
2) Go to Run.
3) Type "regedit" without the quotes, and hit enter.
4) Click the "Registry" (or "File") menu
5) Click "Export Registry File..."
6) Choose an easy to remember place to save the file and give it a name.
7) At the bottom of that box, under Export Range, are 2 buttons, click the one that says "All", and then click Save.

Now that this is done, navigate thru the Registry like you navigate your hard drive in windows explorer.

1) In the left pane, go to KEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
2) In the right pane, find the name of a program you want to remove from your msconfig (look at msconfig if need be), and click on it.
3) Hit the delete key on your keyboard, and click Yes in the resulting dialog.
4) Close MSconfig (if it is open) and then reopen it. If the file is still there it is located somewhere else, if not, repeat the above steps for the rest of the ones you want removed from msconfig.
5) If it is still there, go back to the top of the tree in the left pane (making sure you hit the - button on the left of each folder to collapse them)
6) Then go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run (note that it is local_machine now instead of current_user)
7) Find the file in the right side and delete it in the same manner as before.
8) Close and re-open msconfig again and verify that it is gone. If not, it is in another location, so close the registry editor.

That ends the registry-editing portion. If the files you want to remove are unchecked in MSconfig, make sure to navigate to the Run- key instead of the Run key in each section of the registry to find them (local_machine and current_user)

If the file you need to remove from msconfig is not in the registry:

1) Go to your C: drive in either My Computer or Windows Explorer.
2) Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\<your user name> \Start Menu\Programs\Startup
3) Find the file there and delete it. If it isn’t there, continue reading.
4) Go to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup and find and delete the file. If it isn’t there, keep reading.
5) Go to C:\Documents and Settings and look if there is a folder with your username (or All Users) and that has .WINNT or .WINXP on the end. If so go to either one and then Start Menu\Programs\Startup and remove the program.

If the program is unchecked in msconfig and wasn’t in the registry, change the Startup Directory mentioned above to "Disabled Startup Items", and remove the file from there. If it still shows up in MSconfig, then I cant help you, unplug the computer and walk away.



Submitted by: Dustin B. of Kingwood, TX


Thank you Dustin and all the participants in this week’s answer!
Make sure you check out all the honorable mention below for utility recommendations and other great submissions. I encourage all of you who have more tips or questions on this topic to post below. This way we can all learn more together.


Thanks again everyone!
-Lee Koo
CNET Community


****** HONORABLE MENTIONS**********

Answer:

Cleaning out those programs that just will not uninstall or stuck in msconfig.

Always back up your windows registry when editing the windows registry in the event you should accidently delete an entry not intended for deleting. If you are unsure, then get help; from a guru technician who is experienced in editing the windows registry.

First I have to say, that if you do not have administrator rights, you will need to contact your system administrator to gain access to the windows registry.

Now, here are ths steps to use to remove the old programs from your startup.
1. Check your startup folder for programs that my still be listed as starting up when windows starts up.
2. Check the add/remove programs menu in control panel
If there are programs that are still listed, and you know you have removed them previously, then try removing them again. If this does not work, you will need to edit the windows registry. Do not do this if you are unfamiliar with editing your windows registry.
3. Check the msconfig utility, uncheck those programs that are sitll listed. Sometimes, when you uncheck the programs the first time, they might not clear out, by unchecking them again, assuming they have not been unchecked, then restart your system.
4. If, and only if you are famailier with editing the windows registry, and you have administrator access rights, if not you will need to contact the system administrator to gain access rights.
Back up the windows registry, so if you do make a mistake and delete the wrong entry, you can reload the registry.
Complete a search the for the programs that are listed, write them down so you know what you are looking for. To complete the search, left click on edit, find, then type in the find box the program name you are looking for, then delete the program name, or press ctrl/ f keys, this will open the find box and you can continue to search for the programs(s) you are looking for.

There are some programs out there that will clean the windows registry a little simpler then trying to locate the said program individually. Regclean, Registry manager, and there are some freeware registry clean tools to clean up the registry. Go to www.majorgeek.com, there a lot of registry clean up tools. Some are freeware and some are shareware with a small donation or fee.

Submitted by: Rick H.

**********************************************************************

Answer:

Hi,

About the question submitted by Drew S. of Baltimore, Maryland concerning MSConfig's in Windows XP, I have one solution for it, which many people might be scared of using, as it includes manually messing with the Registry, but it does work as Drew wants:

First, disable items you want to delete from the listing, or make sure they are in fact disabled, using MSConfig.

To remove entries that you want to get rid of, open the Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) and go to the paths listed below. As always, it's advisable to backup the registry key before deleting anything!

Items that are disabled are listed in the registry in one of the following locations:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\MSConfig\startupreg
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SharedTools\MSConfig\startupfolder

Find the key, find the specific listing for the item you want to delete, and delete it. Once you load MSConfig the next time, voilá!, those items won't be there anymore!

Hope this helps!


Submitted by: Danny P.

**********************************************************************

Answer:

Ok this is one that I do a lot…
First you got to know or be aware of the system registry…
Step 1
By choosing normal startup in the “ msconfig “ utility it will put all the startup items back into the registry startup groups and the start menu startup group.
Step 2
First press start, then programs {all programs in xp}, then look for startup and remove any items you don’t want to start with windows.
Step 3
Then you have to run “ regedit “ and navigate to the key’s :

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
&
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

And remove the items that you do wish to load with windows startup

As a small note this is the way to stop a lot of ad ware and spy ware from starting also…
But they do have a way of resetting themselves…so be on the look out and keep clean…


Submitted by: Ross H. of Long Beach, CA

**********************************************************************

Answer:

Hi,

to delete entries from msconfig's startup you need to make some changes in
the registry so don't forget to make a backup of the system first just in
case you nede to undo any changes.

To delete the entries Select START-->RUN-->and enter regedit, then press
enter.

Find the line
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run


and then find HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared
Tools\MSConfig\startupfolder and delete the items or name of the program you
want to delete in the left pane, example


startupfolder
-Symantec
-Bonzi


Submitted by: Lizardo M.

**********************************************************************

Answer:

The removal of the lines on msconfig would involve some registry editing in
Windows XP.

Go to Start>Run>regedit

Click on the 'Registry' button at the top and Click "Export Registry File".
You will asked for a name for the registry backup and there is a radio
button at the bottom aking you "Whether you want to backup only that
particular branch or the entire Registry". Choose the entire registry just
to be safe.(remeber to give a recognisable name to this file)

(It will save with an extension .reg . If you face any problem later you can
right click on it and merge it back to undo the changes you are about to
make.)

Now lets get with our objective.

Proceed to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Run

You can do this by clicking through the '+' signs at the beginning of each
branch.

You should now see three Keys starting with the name Run. Click on each of
them and find the programs that you want to remove from msconfig and delete
those values (in the right pane).

Exit the registry editor and that should be it.

Submitted by: Jaymohan N.

**********************************************************************

Answer:

This involves the registry - make sure you backup the registry first!

The items that are on the list but unchecked show up in two subdirectories in the registry under the following location.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\MSConfig

The items that were from the startup folder that are unchecked will be kept in the following directory
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\MSConfig\startupfolder

The items that were from the registry and were set to startup automatically that are unchecked are kept in the following directory
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\MSConfig\startupreg

If you delete the entries under startupfolder & startupreg then msconfig will have a clean list.


Example:
run msconfig and uncheck Download Accelerator. Close Msconfig.

run regedit and you will see an entry for Download Accelerator under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\MSConfig\startupreg.

Select the key called Download Accelerator - right click and choose delete. This will delete the main key and the subkeys underneath it dealing with all the startup options for Download Accelerator.

close Regedit. Restart computer. Run Msconfig and now Download Accelerator is not on the list.

Submitted by: Bill H.