Community Newsletter: Q&A: How do I disable unnecessary programs running in my PC’s background?
- 9/25/08 12:59 PM
Win Patrol
by ghinfla - 9/13/08 4:23 AM In reply to: How do I disable unnecessary programs running in my PC’s background? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
For us folks with limited computer savvy, the easiest answer is Win Patrol http://www.winpatrol.com/download.html which is free. Lets you delete or disable start up programs with minor effort.
win patrol
by murman - 9/13/08 4:40 AM In reply to: Win Patrol by ghinflaWhile I've never used win patrol, I'm sure it works fine as there are alot of programs out there that'll stop programs from starting up. There are also alot of unnessary services that you'll never use. Stopping these or putting them into manual will no doubt speed things up. I only have 2 programs starting up, zonealarm and avira and 27 processes running.
Programmers and their self important 'tudes...
by Wolfie2k5 - 9/13/08 4:50 AM In reply to: How do I disable unnecessary programs running in my PC’s background? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Kate,
Unfortunately a lot of programmers and the companies that employ them seem to think their program is the most important thing in the universe and as such, they think it MUST run constantly, even if you don't use the program regularly.
Ok... To be fair, since it generally IS their "bread and butter" it IS the most important app in the universe. But that's not to say it's true for everyone else. Most of the time, the .00002 milisecond boost in opening the file in question isn't worth the 10 - 20 MB of RAM it takes to make the app run in "stand-by" mode.
If you've got 5 - 6 of these apps on your computer - and it's NOT hard to do this, by the way - your computer can get sluggish.
Some notable, and common examples of these apps:
WinZip - somewhere around version 8 or 9, they started running something in the task bar. Zip files open just as fast, just as efficiently if you happen to open the file with or without the toolbar gizmo running. Fortunately, when you kill the applet by right-clicking on it, it gives you the option of NOT loading the thing everytime Windows starts.
It gets uglier and harder from here...
Quicktime - For some unfathomable reason, they too insist on keeping a tray icon in your start menu. As with WinZip, there's NO advantage to having it running at startup. You can still view QT videos on the web or in their viewer. Killing this beast is a bit of a pain. You can kill it, remove it from the start up group, even kill it from running with MSConfig - but the next time you reboot Windows, it makes like pesky cockroaches you thought you got rid of - but no.. it's Baaaaack! The only way to kill it is to remove it entirely. There are other reasons NOT to install Quicktime (security vulnerabilities), but that would be a subject for another rant...
Ah... So you say, well, then I can't view QT content. Not true..! There is a QuickTime Alternative available that's generally close to the most up to date version and doesn't have all the hassles you get with the Apple version. It includes all of the codecs (the bits that allow a program to decipher the audio or video file into something understandable) you need to view the content in Windows Media Player 6.4. Ok... So it's not the snazziest interface, but it frees up tons of resources.
Acrobat Reader - Since about version 7 or 8, they too seem to think they need something running from the start-up. The thing is - this beasty doesn't even give you an icon in the task bar. You have to go into the Task Manager to kill it (Reader_SL.exe) from the Process tab. An alternative such as Foxit PDF reader, like the QT alternative above, solves this problem.
Google Earth (for that matter, any locally installed Google application) - Like many applications, it has an updater that for some braindead reason must be running ALL the time. There's no real need for it to be running. It seems to me that having the program check to see if there's a new version whenever you run it is just too difficult to program. Either way, the updater can be uninstalled separately. Thank God for small favors...
That's just a small sampling of the stuff that goes on and how to fix the problem of these apps sucking up resources. The tip of the proverbial iceberg.
There are many other apps that install bits of themselves to start up when you boot the computer. The only really acceptable ones would be your antivirus app and possibly an anti-spyware app (like Spybot S&D or AdAware's Adwatch) and utilities that monitor or offer quick configuration options for your graphics and/or sound. And maybe a printer monitoring utility - although, I tend to find these more annoying than useful.
To get rid of these annoying start-up utilities, you can go about cleaning up your start up group by running the previously mentioned MSCONFIG utility Click the Start button, click Run and type in MSCONFIG.EXE and click OK. This will launch the configuration application. Click on the last tab - the one with start-up options and you will see what's set to start with Windows and as a safety measure, the location of the file in question. You can then uncheck boxes next to each of the offending start group items and click OK. This will prompt you to reboot your computer. Unless they're like QuickTime, they will not start up the next time. Check to see if the application you've pruned from your start-up still works (Most of them will). If they don't, you can run MSCONFIG again, and re-enable the start up item, reboot and try again.
The MSCONFIG utility will handle both apps starting from the registry as well as those from the Startup group in Windows.
If for some reason, you kill something using MSConfig and like QuickTime, and it keeps coming back, that usually means there's another process somewhere that checks to see that the program is set to run and will "fix" the error of it being removed. As with QuickTime, you may want to see if there's another alternative application you can use that won't be such a resource hog. And by all means, don't be afraid to change to another app if there's one available.
Real Player too
by Zhuge_Liang - 9/13/08 5:15 AM In reply to: Programmers and their self important 'tudes... by Wolfie2k5I would also suggest gettign rid of Real Player as well and changing over to Real Alternative
background services
by xpdeg - 8/14/09 7:30 AM In reply to: Programmers and their self important 'tudes... by Wolfie2k5I had the same problem with quick time. It always came back after I disabled it from the background. I kept poking around my pc, and I found out somewhere in the adminstrative are that windows have an scheduler. Sort of schedules things for your computer like updates and the like. Actually like when you schedule your hdd to defrag. Well, somehow quicktime is built to schedule updates everytime you start your computer.
But, you can also disable it from there and it will not start up anymore.
I'm not very savvy as some of you guys, but I like to poke in my computer. I've made a couple of mistakes, but I've been able to come around. Hopefully this will help someone here.
Research, research again and then make yourself a coffee
by Zhuge_Liang - 9/13/08 5:10 AM In reply to: How do I disable unnecessary programs running in my PC’s background? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi Kate,
You have two options here; with the first one being the removal of software applications that make an appearance as soon as you start up Windows and the latter being the collection of necessary and unnecessary Windows services that also load on start up. I'll start with the first one. Ready?
1. Take a look at your computer screen now. Can you see where the clock is in the bottom right corner of the screen? To the left of the clock you may have a number of small icons just sittng there. This can give a reasonable idea of what programs load up with windows.
2. Hold the mouse pointer over these icons for a second or two. Often a "tool tip" will appear explaing what the icon is for.
3. Ask yourself the following question for each icon... Do I need this program to load automatically with windows? The answer will probably be NO.
4. Make a note of those you don't need.
5. The interesting stuff is coming up next, so before we start why not grab yourself a coffee, take the dog for a walk, shave your head or chant some buddhist mantras, whatever you do to relax for a few minutes because here we go.........
_____________
1. Bottom left corner of your screen is the "START" button. Click it .
2. A menu will appear. Can you see the word "RUN"?
3. Click on "RUN" and a small window will appear.
4. Part way down there will be a small space for you to enter some text. If anything is written in there already just delete it.
5. Type the following in to the text box
MSCONFIG
and click "OK". A new window should have now appeared. You should be able to see the following tabs
...
General Boot Services Startup Tools
or similar.
6. Click on "startup"
7. You should be able to see a long list of programs that start up with Windows. Take a look at the list you wrote out earlier and see if you can find them here.
8. Any program starting up with Windows will have a small tick/check next to it. To disable automatic start up you simply need to
UNTICK the boxes.
9. As is often the case, certain programs will have a really obscure name in the startup section that makes you wonder if it is an essential piece of software or not. I mean, if you see something like "AVG", "iTunes" or "yahoo messenger" in the list then it is quite obvious what they are (I would disable the last two here); but what if you see something like "abcggf12"? Well there is a solution to this provided you are on the Internet. Just go to a popular search engine such as Live, Cuil, Google or Yahoo and enter the name. 9 times out of 10 you will discover what the filename relates to and then you can make an educated decsion as to whether or not you want to disable it.
10. You will probably find that the top couple of names in the list will be necessary such as graphics, sound, Internet and anti virus. It is always better to start from the bottom of the list and work your way up.
11. When ou are satisfied with your hard work click on "Apply" and then on "OK"
12. You will be asked to restart your computer. You can do this now or later. It is entirely up to you but the changes you have made won't happen until a reboot.
13. When you have restarted your computer a message will appear telling you that you hgave made changes to the system. Just place a tick in the box to stop the message appearing on your next boot up and click OK
THAT'S IT.
Just a quick recap
START --> run --> MSCONFIG --> STARTUP --> choose programs to disable --> APPLY --> OK --> REBOOT
______________________
PART 2 - SERVICES
I will give you the easy way.
Start --> Run --> MSconfig
This time select "services"
You will need to research each filename and decide whther or not it can be disabled. If you are unsure what it does just leave it be.
A reboot will be necessary after clicking "apply" and OK
____________
And Finally ........
START --> Programs --> Startup
can you see any shortcuts in here? If you can and they are not needed, just right click and delete.
Please not that all of the above procedures I have mentioned WILL NOT delete and programs. The will only disable automatic start up or remove a shortcut.
_______________________
I would also recommend defragmenting your hard drive and buying me a nice new Bugatti Veyron or a bottle of Vodka, lol.
Hope this is helpful
Stu
What a great post!
by mgbkt153lw - 9/20/08 5:22 AM In reply to: Research, research again and then make yourself a coffee by Zhuge_LiangStu,
Congratulations on a great post. I have always, as a professional technical writer, advocated a list as the best way of conveying a procedure to a reader. To do it with a sense of humour (expressed outside the list) is even better! I'm afraid I cannot rise to a Bugatti!
I lurk on many forums and have read some atrocious English written by native speakers - non-native speakers are usually much better.
Regards, - and keep posting!
Unnecessary starting program
by rollabou - 9/20/08 5:37 AM In reply to: Research, research again and then make yourself a coffee by Zhuge_LiangThousand thanks for ansewering Kate's question, It was very helpful for me as I was looking for it for a while.
Rol.
msconfig, services.msc & ProcessLibrary.com are way to go..
by dexter_birdbrain - 9/13/08 5:30 AM In reply to: How do I disable unnecessary programs running in my PC’s background? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
1. Firstly go to the Task Manager (AlT+Ctrl+Del or Windows+Run-->taskmgr). Look for any unidentifiable processes running in the background. Search them on ProcessLibrary.com to know what software the processes belong to. If it is a software you don't want to be running 24X7, you might want to nuke it from startup.
2. Once, you have the list of processes to be removed, now head to msconfig.exe (Windows+Run-->msconfig)and go to the startup tab. Remove the tick in the checkboxes for the processes you don't want to be running.
3. Also head to services.msc (Windows+Run-->services.msc) and STOP the services which you don't want running 24X7. Change their type to Manual from Automatic.
The only word of caution - Take a System Restore before doing this.
Also, in case you run into issues after doing this, you can recheck the checkboxes and start the services which you stopped.
A bit techie, but not too difficult
by andrewsjd - 9/13/08 5:37 AM In reply to: How do I disable unnecessary programs running in my PC’s background? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Kate, the programs that start up with your computer (besides, obviously, the operating system and essential drivers) can be controlled in various ways. In the final analysis, most are located in the registry, but you don't have to (and probably shouldn't) edit the registry to remove them.
The primary way to control what starts up is with the System Configuration Utility. You start this by going to Start/Run, then type "msconfig" (without quotes) and hit enter.
This will present you with the System Configuration Menu. On the "General" tab (normally the first one you see), you need to click on "Selective Startup". Then click on the "Startup" tab.
At this point things get a bit tricky. You keep programs from starting when you start your computer by unchecking them here. You can uncheck all of them and Windows will start, but you won't be happy with the results. For example, your antivirus and firewall programs probably won't start, maybe an important driver for some piece of hardware you use like the touchpad on a laptop.
So how do you know what to uncheck? Two ways. First, if you look at the column "Command" you can sometimes tell what program is involved. For example on mine I have one clearly related to Adobe Reader. I don't care to have it load at startup so I uncheck it. For the other ones, you can do a search for the filename (the part of the "command" after the last bar) on the Internet. Several sites give information of these files, mostly as a means of knowing whether they are spyware or not. Normally you can find out the function of the command in this way and determine whether you need it or not. If you make a mistake, the worst that will happen is that something will no longer work the next time you start your computer. In that case, go back and recheck it, then restart the computer.
Any changes you make in the startup tab only take effect after your restart your computer. That is, the running program won't be shut down by unchecking the command in the Startup tab. Also, when you restart, you will be presented with a message telling you you are using selective startup and asking if that's okay. Just check the appropriate box on this message and you won't ever see it again, at least until you make more changes.
Note that to see the whole command on the Startup tab, you will often have to widen the command column by dragging on the vertical bar between the words "Command" and "Location".
For some startup programs you don't need to use the System Configuration Tool. A number of the things in this startup list show up as icons in your system tray, the lower right corner of your screen. Well-written programs give you ways to permanently remove them from automatic startup by one of three options: 1) you can right click on these icons in the system tray and you will be presented with an option to remove it from the system tray (not just "exit" which doesn't keep it from starting next time you start your computer), or 2) you can get to a preferences menu by right clicking on the icon, which will in turn offer the ability to turn off the automatic startup, or 3) Going to the preferences in the program itself (for example the ATI graphics driver) will present you with the ability to not start the program at computer boot up.
There are also utility programs that facilitate this process. For example CCleaner (available for free on Download.com) has a "tools" page where the same thing can be accomplished as using the Windows System Configuration Tool. I prefer the latter because I suspect that CCleaner removes the reference completely from the registry so you can't change your mind later (I may be mistaken on this).
Personally I have eliminated the startup of at least a half dozen programs by this means and they have been no loss whatsoever. Experimenting isn't likely to create anything more than a temporary inconvenience, so it's worth a try. Just don't turn off your firewall!
Use Mke Lin's Startup Control Panel Programme
by eatonop - 9/13/08 6:49 AM In reply to: How do I disable unnecessary programs running in my PC’s background? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I too get annoyed when installers, especially applications automatically put programs in my startup folder or registry without my consent. Good thing though it is not too complicated removing or disabling them. I for my part use the freeware Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel Programme which can be downloaded at http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml. It is so easy to install and use actually. After installing, you can find the startup panel in the general control panel of Windows XP. From there everything is intuitive. You just simply uncheck or delete the unwanted startup programme. Afterwards close the startup control panel. After a pc restart the disactivated startup programmes would not be loaded resulting in a faster booting process.
Great Program
by dataport - 9/20/08 9:21 AM In reply to: Use Mke Lin's Startup Control Panel Programme by eatonopI was owner of a computer store for about 10 years and Mike Lin's start up program was by far the easiest to install and use. He has a stand alone or control panel version and it also works in Windows 2000, 2000 server and 2003 server versions. Best of all ou don't have to install it and is free! Do a google search for startup.cpl and he is the first link.
Disable Background Programs
by grichardth - 9/13/08 7:59 AM In reply to: How do I disable unnecessary programs running in my PC’s background? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I use Win Patrol. It allows you to see which programs want to load and run in the background and allow or deny privileges on a case by case basis.
Green Scene/Chroma Key
by ChrisJay - 8/27/09 2:21 PM In reply to: Disable Background Programs by grichardthWhat is a good video editing software with Chroma key and Green Scene effect, free or at a low cost.
Disable start up programs
by tims4 - 9/13/08 8:38 AM In reply to: How do I disable unnecessary programs running in my PC’s background? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Firstly it is true that by disabling some unused start-up programs may make your pc faster.
This is because each of these programs takes up a memory addresses, which may be needed by the programs that you want to run at the current time. Each and every program that you run takes up a bit of memory, if the system runs out of available memory space the pc will try to move this memory around so that it can fit what memory addresses a program needs onto the RAM cards (Random Access Memory Card). if it runs out of memory addresses the pc will attempt to place the least used memory into what is called a paging file which is stored on your hard drive. accessing memory from a paging file is much slower than accessing it from RAM therefore your computer may react very slowly and appear not to be doing anything.
I recommend that you firstly try stopping the start-up programs, as you wanted. To do this go to the start menu if you are running vista type in msconfig in the search it will come up with msconfig.exe click this to open it, if you are running any other windows you will have to click run and type msconfig.exe then ok (this also works in vista but the run button is missing from the start menu by default). in vista the UAC (User Account Control) may pop up press continue. A new window will open up with a title System Configuration, from here click the start-up tab and a list of start-up programs will appear. the checks show which programs will start on start-up, those without checks are those that will not start. To stop a program from starting up un-check the box next to the program. Click ok at the bottom of the window, when you are done, the a windows asks to restart click restart. when your pc boots back up hopefully it will be faster.
However if it isn't faster, try not to open several different programs at once, as more memory will be taken up the more programs you have open.
Another thing which may be slowing your system may be the amount of storage space left on your hard drive. Performing a disk clean up can get rid of files which you probably don't know are stored on your hard drive, to do this in vista click the start button and search for cleanmgr, in xp click run and type in cleanmgr.exe then click ok. this will then open a window which will tell you it is calculating how much space you will be able to free. This may take a seconds to few minutes depending on your pc. when it has finished it will open a window suggesting what can be deleted to save space. check all that you wish to delete and click ok. It will then delete the selected items freeing up space so that the pc can run slightly more smoother.
If still your pc is slow after this then i suggest upgrading your RAM, for XP I recommend at least 512mb of RAM, and for Vista 1gb of RAM. Ideally Doubling the values above where the option is available. Upgrading the RAM card may sound drastic, for a novice computer user as it requires opening up the pc to insert a new card. however this is the best way to prolong the use of your pc. As the cost of a new pc is going to be considerably more £££'s than RAM cards. However i suggest taking it to a expert or a techie friend to figure out which type of RAM you need and install it for you, or just search the forums on Cnet to find out how to accomplish this.
I hope this helps you.
GENERALCAW AKA Craig A Williams
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