Reduce program from running at startup

Greetings, Audience.

Are your PC getting slower lately? Need to wait several minutes on startup before you can start using the PC? No worries. Here's are some of the step that you can take to reduce the number of program that will run when you start your PC.

1. Check the list of program that will run on startup. the easiest way to do this is by running "msconfig" from your "run" window (default shortcut is windows + R).

If there is any unknown / unwanted program that appear in the list, it is best to disable it from running on startup. The lazy way to disable it is by unticking the checkbox on the left.

2. Remove the unwanted program.

• The cleaner way to do this to go the specified location mentioned in 'MSCONFIG' above, and remove it there. Those that starts with 'HKLM/HKCU' usually means it is inside the registry, under HKEY_CURRENT_USER (HKCU) or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (HKLM). If you're not familiar with registry, I recommend you not to use this step. :D
• The safer way (for non tech-savvy) is to use Trend-Micro's "HijackThis" application. Download and run the application (choose scan and save log file), and it will produce a 'log' file. You can analyze the logfile at http://www.hijackthis.de/ (copy the content of the log file into the text field in that site). From the result, you can decide whether or not to remove unwanted / potentially harmful application that run on your computer on startup. To remove those programs, just tick the checkbox in the HijackThis program (the list will be populated after you scan your system), and click the 'Fix' button. It will do the step in previous point above for you. Note that some of the warning from that site may be due to the difference in language (program file is standard US, programme in Denmark, etc).

Well, that it, I think. That should pretty much cover the basics. Hope it helps. Have a good day. ^^