Windows XP Hacks [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Hack 4 Halt Startup Programs and Services

Increase your PC''s performance
and speed up startup times by shutting off applications and services
that you don''t need.

One of the best ways to speed up your
PC without having to spend money for extra RAM is to stop unnecessary
programs and services from running whenever you start your PC. When
too many programs and services run automatically every time you start
up your system, startup itself takes a long time, and too many
programs and services running simultaneously can bog down your CPU
and hog your memory.

Some programs, such as antivirus software, should run automatically
at startup and always run on your computer. But many other programs,
such as instant messenger software, serve no purpose by being run at
startup. And while you need a variety of background services running
on your PC in order for XP to function, there are many unnecessary
services that run on startup. For example, on many systems, the
Wireless Zero Configuration Service runs to automatically configure a
WiFi (802.11) network card, even though no such card is present in
the system.

1.5.1 Eliminating Programs that Run at Startup

Stopping
programs from running at startup is a particularly daunting task,
because there is no single place you can go to stop them all. Some
run because they''re put in the
Startup folder, others because
they''re part of logon scripts, others because of
Registry settings and so on. But with a little bit of perseverance,
you should be able to stop them from running.

1.5.1.1 Cleaning out the Startup folder

Start by cleaning out your
Startup folder. Find it in
C:\Documents and Settings\<User Name>\Start
Menu\Programs\Startup, where <User
Name> is your Windows logon name. Delete the shortcuts
of any programs you don''t want to run on startup. As
with any shortcuts, when you delete them, you''re
only deleting the shortcut, not the program itself. (You can also
clear out the startup items by going to Start Programs
Startup and right-clicking on items you want to remove.)
Next, clean out your Scheduled Tasks folder. Go
to C:\WINDOWS\Tasks, and delete the shortcuts of
any programs that you don''t want to run
automatically on a schedule.

You can bypass all the programs in your Startup folder on an as-needed basis. To stop XP from loading any programs in the Startup folder, hold down the Shift key during boot-up. No programs in the Startup folder will run, but the items will still remain there, so that they will start up as they would normally the next time you boot.

1.5.1.2 Using the System Configuration Utility

Taking
the previous steps will stop the
obvious programs from running at startup, but it
won''t kill them all. The best tool for disabling
hidden programs that run on startup is the System Configuration Utility, shown in
Figure 1-5. To run it, type
msconfig at a command prompt and press Enter.
(If that doesn''t work, first do a search for
msconfig.exe, and then when you find the file,
double-click it.)

Figure 1-5. The Startup tab of the System Configuration Utility

To stop a program from running at startup, go to the Startup tab in
this utility and uncheck the box next to the program. It can
sometimes be difficult to understand what programs are listed on the
Startup tab. Some, such as America Online, are clearly labeled. But
often, you''ll see a phrase or collection of letters,
such as fs20. That''s the name
of the running filein this case,
fs20.exe, which is Free Surfer mk II, an
excellent free popup killer [Hack #33]. As you can see
from the picture, I''ve chosen to let this useful
tool run on startup.

To get more information about a listing, expand the width of the
Command column near the top of the Startup tab. Expand it enough and
you''ll see the startup command that the program
issues, including its location, such as C:\Program
Files\Free Surfer\fs20.exe. The
directory location should be another hint to help you know the name
of the program.

When stopping programs from running at startup, it''s
best to stop them one at a time rather than in groups. You want to
make sure that you''re not causing any system
problems by stopping them. So stop one and restart your PC. If it
runs fine, then stop another and restart. Continue doing this until
you''ve cleared all the programs you
don''t want to run automatically.

Each time you uncheck a box and restart your PC,
you''ll get a warning, shown in Figure 1-6, that you''ve used the System
Configuration Utility to disable a program from starting
automatically. If you don''t want to see that
warning, disable it by checking the box in the dialog itself.

Figure 1-6. Disabled program warning

After you''ve used the System Configuration Utility
to identify programs that run on startup, you may want to try
disabling them from with the programs themselves. So run each program
that starts automatically, and see if you can find a setting that
allow you to halt it from running on startup.

1.5.1.3 Using the Registry to halt programs running on startup

Even the
System Configuration Utility
won''t necessarily let you identify and kill all
programs that run on startup. You may also need to hack the Registry
to disable them. To do so, run the Registry Editor [Hack #68] and
go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.
The right pane will contain a list of some of the programs that
automatically run at startup. The Data field tells you the path and
name of the executable so that you can determine what each program
is. Right-click on any program you don''t want to
run, and choose Delete. That will kill any programs that run specific
to your logon. To kill programs that run for every user of the
system, go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
and follow the same instructions for deleting other programs you
don''t want to run at
startup.

1.5.2 Disabling Services that Run at Startup

Constantly
running in the background of XP are
servicesprocesses that help the operating system run, or that
provide support to applications. Many of these services launch
automatically at startup. While you need many of them, there are also
many that aren''t required and that can slow your
system down when they run in the background.

You can disable services at startup by using the System Configuration
Utility, similar to the way that you halt programs from running at
startup, except that you use the Services tab instead of the Startup
tab. But the System Configuration Utility doesn''t
necessarily list every service that launches on startup. A bigger
problem is that disabling services is more of shot in the dark than
disabling programs. When you disable a program, you can get a sense
of what the program does. But when you disable a service through the
System Configuration Utility, there''s often no way
to know what it does.

A better way of disabling services at startup is via the
Services Computer Management Console,
shown in Figure 1-7. Run it by typing
services.msc at the command prompt. The Services
Computer Management Console includes a description of all services,
so that you can know ahead of time whether a particular service is
one you want to turn off. It also lets you pause the service, so that
you can test out your machine with the service off to see whether
it''s needed or not.

Figure 1-7. The Services Computer Management Console

After you run the console, click on the Extended tab. This view will
show you a description of each service in the left pane when you
highlight the service. The Startup Type column shows you which
services launch on startupany services with
"Automatic" in that column. Click
on that column to sort together all the services that automatically
launch on startup. Then highlight each of those services and read the
descriptions.

When you find a service you want to disable, right-click on it and
choose Properties. In the Properties dialog box that appears, choose
Manual from the "Startup type"
drop-down list. The service won''t start
automatically from now on, but you can start it manually via the
console. If you want the service disabled so that it
can''t be run, choose Disabled. To test the effects
of turning off the service, turn off any services that you
don''t want to run by clicking "Stop
the service" in the left pane, or by right-clicking
on the service and choosing Stop.

Table 1-2 lists some common services you might
want to halt from running at startup.