Cleaning up startup

[Josh]

I remember a long time ago having a program that checked what programs started up with windows and then gave a description of what each one was to help you determine if you wanted it or not. Does anyone know what that program is?

[malice2501]

Im not too sure about the one you are talking about, but TweakNowPowerPack has a crap load of great tools (startup manager included) It optimizes your Internet connection, your lvl 2 processor cache, and a lot more. Microsoft Antispyware Remover also has a nifty startup editer. Hope this helps.

[Winged 2.0]

msconfig

Start->Run...

[Josh]

Thanks. I didn't know that Microsoft AntiSpyware did that.

[legoman]

Start => Run => services.msc

this should help you to manage your services that startup but be careful about dependencies.
the descriptions are written by microsoft so generally aren't of much help, but you can just google the service.

[Kazuya]

I use WinPatrol. It has startup customization and warns you if any changes are made to IE or critical system files.

[Luckey]

TweakNowPowerPack sounds interesting, are there any drawbacks to it? I try to shy away from utilities, because one time I installed some processor booster and explorer would never run...

[moosekey]

I use Codestuff Starter, it is easy, small and freeware, have never had a problem with it.
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/starter.html

[malice2501]

TweakNowPowerPack sounds interesting, are there any drawbacks to it? I try to shy away from utilities, because one time I installed some processor booster and explorer would never run...

Nah, ive been using it on every PC ive owned and it has nothing extra to go with it. No adverse affects, no adware/spware, it doesnt even run at startup. It basically edits files within windows. Try it out, if you dont like it ill donate 500 gil to ya.

[Angelscry]

You can also use RegSupreme Pro. This software is firstly made to clean up the windows registry. It the most powerfull one that I have actually found. Because starting programs are stored into the registry, RegSupreme Pro had an option to select wich starting programs you want to keep or delete. See U

[zero_defekz]

start ~~> run ~~~> msconfig ~~~> startup tab

[Mikey_]

regedit also lets you see and shut down what starts up with your pc along with a few other nice options

[ncxtreme]

I use TuneUp Utilities 2004, havn't had any problems with it