faster-everything quicktip

this very simple little tip is documented alot all over the web, and you may already know about it. the basic idea is limiting the amount of programs that open on startup, thus reducing the amount of programs running and decreasing startup time. however in this guide, I use a slightly different approach at picking the startup programs.

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instructions

open the run dialog box by going to start, run, or hitting the shortcut key windows+R. enter 'msconfig', and hit enter. select the 'Selective Startup' radio button, and go to the startup tab.

you will be presented with a list of every single program that starts up when windows logs in. to make the items a little more identifiable, increase the width of the 'command' column, or double-click on the line that you grab when doing this.

to get started, click disable all. now you have to go through this list item by item, and you only select the items (by ticking the tickboxes next to their names) that you know. there are also some essential services you may need to startup as well, such as an anti-virus program, or sound drivers. however, if done right, you will be left over with a lot less startup programs. restart your computer, and you will get a message telling you it's done a selected startup. tick the box to keep the message from shoqing during startup every time, and you will be ready to go.

now I know what you're thinking. am I not missing out on essential windows services and other programs? well no, not unless you have left them unselected. the general guideline remains that if you don't know what it is, it probably isn't that important. if your sound doesn't work after doing this, take a real good look in your item list, and see if you can find something that might be your sound drivers. most users won't be having any problems though.