Oooh! how I hate it when I start up my computer only to wait 15 minutes while my programs load up: MSN Messenger, GTalk, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, Google Desktop, norton anti virus program, my SQL Server, Java virtual machine, Real Player, Apple QuickTime player, AIM Messenger, Nero CD Burning, Windows Defender, Adobe PDF Reader...I think you get my point now...if you have tons of programs loading up that you don't use anymore, then they are basically doing nothing but slowing your computer down and should be disabled so they don't load automatically.

if you occasionally use the program, that's not a problem because when you do decide to use it, clicking on it will load it up. However, all the major software developers like to load themselves up into computer memory immediately so that in case you use their program, it can load up quickly. This is fine for programs that you use often, but how many times a day to you open Apple QuickTime or Adobe acrobat reader? And does 10 extra seconds really matter more than being able to logon quickly!

Disabling startup programs can greatly increase the speed of your computer and usually will not adversely affect your computer because as I mentioned earlier, the programs will be loaded automatically when you click on them. I find this model of load when needed rather than everything being loaded at once to make more sense!

You can manage your startup programs by going opening the windows System Configuration Utility. juts access it by typing msconfig in "start-->run" and deselect the programs that u dont want to load in starup. If you're running Windows 2000, when you type in msconfig, you'll get an error message saying that Windows could not find anything with that name! That is because Bill Gates took out the msconfig feature out of Windows 2000 (even though it was in Windows 98) and then after many complaints, put it back into Windows XP! (yup! you can find it in vista too) In order to get it to work on Windows 2000, you need to download the msconfig file from a 3rd party website and place it in "system 32" folder.

You will find a startup program list when u open msconfig, it has two columns, The startup program name and the startup program path. This may look a little scary and may seem as if you'll screw up the computer if you change anything, but don't be worried. I routinely disable all of my applications without any problems. Remember these are just applications that were installed on your computer, so disabling these programs does not affect the core operating system. (dont worry about it ) However, you may not want to disable everything; for instance, if you have anti-virus software or Google Desktop running and would like those to run. If you are not able to understand what the program is from the name, try to look at the full path. If you can't tell what a program is from it's name or path, then try to disable it and see if it makes any difference once you re-start your computer. Most of the time I have found that these programs do not do anything very useful on the computer.

Dont forget to restart your pc right after disabling unwated programs from your msconfig . When you log in next time, you should find the logon to be faster depending on how many items you unchecked! this can save your ram too. now its your turn. go open your msconfig and screw those unwanted programs. good luck and thanks for reading my article.