Step 4: System registry, part 2

You may be working in a program and wondering why it runs so slowly--especially if you don’t have any other programs open. The problem is that when Windows boots up, a lot of programs are automatically loaded to run "in the background" where you can’t see. Of course, some of these are quite valuable (virus protection, for instance), but many are useless and simply eating up your system resources for no reason.

Here’s how to get rid of these unnecessary startup programs:

The first and easiest way to seek and destroy unnecessary startup programs is to look in your Startup folder.

Click the Start button, then choose All Programs (if you’re using the classic Start menu, you’ll click "Programs" instead).

Click the Startup folder.

The list of programs that automatically start will appear. Check this list, and if you see something you don’t want or need to start automatically–such as some Microsoft Office task–right-click it and choose Delete.

Repeat as necessary.

Now let’s go a little deeper and remove some programs that start automatically without appearing in your Startup folder. Here’s how:

Click your Start orb.

Click "Run".

In the box that appears, enter msconfig.

Click the Startup tab.

You’ll see a list of all the programs that start automatically with Windows. Most of these should start: Your antivirus program, several Windows programs, maybe a driver or two. But some things just waste resources.

Most notorious for loading themselves are media players such as Quicktime and RealPlayer. There’s no need for them to be loaded until you need them. If you see things like that, uncheck them and click the Apply button. When you’re done, click OK.



That done, let’s go even deeper. Besides programs that run automatically when you start up, Windows also launches services--internal software that does important things, such as making your network run, managing users, and a host of other things.

But there are some services you just don’t need; running them is a waste of resources. Here’s how to find and reduce them:

Click the Start button, then Run.

Enter services.msc in the box.

The screen that pops up is a bit intimidating at first, but it’s actually pretty straightforward. Services are programs that run in the background, helping your computer work. They do things like make sure you’re connected to the network, allow your mouse to work, and so on.



The Services list shows everyone that’s on your machine and tells you whether it starts automatically or manually, among other things. Some of the services that start automatically are unnecessary, so we’ll stop them. Here’s how:

Click the Extended tab on the bottom, which will create a space that will give you a description of each service.

Click on the words "Startup Type" at the top of that column, which will sort the services. The ones that say "Automatic" are, obviously, the ones that start when Windows does. They’re the only ones you care about.

You can choose to disable the following non-critical items without encountering problems. Find out what each does before disabling, click on them. Some of these items are specific to Vista, while others are also found in Windows XP.

COM+ Event System
Cryptographic Services
DFS Replication
Computer Browser
Distributed Link Tracking Client
IKE and AuthIP IPsec Keying Modules
IP Helper
IPsec Policy Agent
KtmRm for Distributed Transaction Coordinator
Offline Files
Remote Registry
Secondary Logon
SSDP Discovery
Tablet PC Input Service (Unless you have a Tablet PC)
Terminal Services
UPnP Device Host
Windows Error Reporting Service (no more asking you to notify Microsoft when there’s a crash!)

One at a time, find each one on the list and double-click it. A dialog box will appear. In it will be a drop-down menu next to "Startup type" that is probably set to Automatic.

Change it to Manual and click OK. This way the service will start only if it’s needed, not all the time.

Then under Service status, click Stop.

Click OK and go to the next service on the list.

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