| One of the basic problems in
regard to losing speed is having too many things running in the
background at the same time. To see how many things you have
running, you can look in the lower right hand screen in the taskbar
by the clock to get a rough idea. You can also hit CTRL+ALT+DEL
all at the same time ONCE only. This list is the name of every
program that is running. The only two you absolutely HAVE to have
is Explorer and Systray. If you have more than five or six items
in this list, then depending on the system you have, system
performance can quickly decline. Removing these items is not
easy. Below are two methods; of the two, one is more advanced but has the
ability to remove all the programs you want. However, making a
mistake is also more costly.
Simple Method: Right click on an empty space on
your taskbar. Click on properties in the dialog box that appears.
This will give you a window with two tabs towards the top, click
on Start Menu Programs. Under Customize Start Menu, click on
advanced. This will open an explorer window with a list of the
programs in your start menu. On the left side of the window,
double click on Programs. In the list that drop downs, double
click on StartUp. You will now see several programs that load when
Windows is started. Delete any of the programs you don't need.
Next time Windows is started, these programs will NOT load.
Advanced Method: Do all of the steps in the
Simple Method first. However, you may notice that there are still
programs running that do not show up in that list. If this is the
case there are two possibilities, depending on whether you are
running Windows 95 or 98/ME.
If you are running Windows 98 or ME
Click on Start, then run. When a dialog box
appears to ask you for the name of the program to run, type in 'MSCONFIG'.
Click OK to run the configuration utility. Along the top of the
new program window you should see 'STARTUP', click there. You
should see a list of all the programs the computer runs when you
first turn it on. To disable a program, simply remove the check in
the box next to it. When your finished, click OK and restart your
computer.
If you are running Windows 95:
WARNING!!!!: CHANGING THE REGISTRY CAN SERIOUSLY
AFFECT WINDOWS. BE SURE TO FOLLOW THESE STEPS EXACTLY.
Click on Start, Run. Type in REGEDIT and hit enter. You will now
see an explorer window that displays your registry. In the left
hand window double click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. Scroll down until
you see Software, double click there. Scroll down and double click
on Microsoft. Scroll down and double click on Windows. Double
click on CurrentVersion. Scroll down until you see Run, RunOnce,
etc.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices
Single click on Run. In the window on the right,
you will see ALL the programs windows loads when it starts,
including the ones you need for Windows to work at all. If you see
a program you know for sure you don't want to run then right click
on the name portion of then entry and click delete. Repeat the
above process for the entries RunOnce, RunOnceEx, RunServices, and
RunServicesOnce. If you aren't sure what the program is doing, it
is best to leave it alone. Good luck and be careful.
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