NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article, June 2011
Speed Up Your PC by Cleaning Your Startup
By Ira Wilsker, Radio Show Host,
Columnist, College Professor and deputy sheriff
iwilsker@sbcglobal.net
(click to email author)

WEBSITES:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-startup-manager.htm
http://codestuff.tripod.com/products_starter.html
http://www.winpatrol.com
http://www.winpatrol.com/wpsetup.exe
http://www.soluto.com
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner
http://www.iobit.com/advancedsystemcareper.html
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx (Autoruns)

We all love that new PC, especially how quickly it boots, loads programs, and runs applications. Inevitably, we start to install new programs, and notice that the row of icons on the toolbar adjacent to the clock starts to get longer, while the computer performance is degraded. Gradually our boot time increases, applications seem to slow down even more, and we get lockups, the "Not Responding" statement from the software, the infamous "Blue Screen of Death", and other irritations that may make us feel like chunking the computer out the window. While there may be many causes of the above maladies, one of the most common causes of slow booting, degraded performance, and non-responsive applications is that the user has too many items loaded when the computer boots.

Many of the applications that we install add themselves to the startup so they load whenever the computer boots, and may (but not always) add an icon to the toolbar by the clock. Every time we boot the computer, the programs in our startup load, and usually consume processing power (cycles), take up memory space, and slightly degrade our performance; the degradation is cumulative, the more programs loaded at boot, the more the degradation of performance. Some of these programs add themselves to the startup so they will load faster when needed, but are not really necessary in the startup, while security programs and some utilities are necessary at startup. By not allowing unnecessary programs to load at boot the boot process will be more rapid, free up memory, take some of the load of the CPU chip (the computer's brains) which will improve performance, and reduce the chance of having programs conflict with each other.

Since the early days of Windows, Microsoft has provided a method to manage some of the startup process, but does not make the management process very easy. By going to Start - Run - typing "msconfig" (no quotes) in the box, and running it will open the "System Configuration" utility; clicking on the "Startup" tab will show which programs are scheduled to load at boot. Any program that is checked will load at boot; simply unchecking a box will prevent that program from automatically loading at the next and subsequent boots, unless re-checked. Just be sure to click the "Apply" and "OK" radio buttons, which will save the changes. If a window pops up at the next boot (common in Windows XP) which tells the user that the system configuration has been run, simply tell the window not to show again, and it will be gone from future boots. While this method works well, and requires no additional software as it is integral with Windows, it only provides the program name, publisher, and some other basic information. If the user recognizes that a program is necessary, such as his security software, leave the box checked; if the user recognizes that a program loaded at boot is not always used, such as schedulers, updaters, media programs, and chat programs, the user may uncheck the program. When unchecked, the program can still be used by manually clicking on the desktop program icon, which will load and run it. Just remember that the user can always check an unchecked box to start loading the program at future boots.

There are several free utilities that can ease the process of managing the startup process, and many of the combination system repair utilities available, both free and commercial, almost always include a startup manager. One of my favorite choices for free software information and ratings is Gizmo's Freeware, which has the latest reviews and ratings of the top performing startup managers at http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-startup-manager.htm. Gizmo uses a community rating system where a large number of users test the various products, and rate them; these rating have proven to be reliable. Gizmo has recommended three free startup managers; Microsoft's Autoruns, Starter, and WinPatrol. Autoruns is one of the Microsoft "Sysinternals" which has a lot of functionality and power, shows everything that can startup including parts of Windows itself, but is not the most user friendly. Starter (codestuff.tripod.com/products_starter.html) is an excellent free standing program that is very comprehensive, but more intuitive and user friendly than Autoruns. My favorite of the three recommended by Gizmo is WinPatrol (winpatrol.com). which has a free version, and a more comprehensive paid Professional version. WinPatrol can provide a lot more information about each program in the startup by double clicking on the program title, which will open a page on the WinPatrol website that gives detailed information about the program. Based on the information presented, the user can decide whether or not to leave the item in the system startup.

There are several other utilities that I use periodically to clean my startup. One is the free version of Advanced System Care Free from IOBit (http://www.iobit.com/advancedsystemcareper.html). One of the administrative tools under the Utilities heading is a startup manager, which is simple to use, but does not provide a lot of information about the programs which are loaded at boot.

One extremely popular program, CCleaner, which is best known as a hard drive file cleaner, but has a decent startup manager, is available for free download from http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner. To use the startup manager click on Tools - Startup, and all of the items will appear. By clicking on an item and then one of the radio buttons (Enable, Disable, Delete), the startup process can be easily controlled. If an item has been previously disabled (stopped from loading at boot), it can be easily restored if desired by clicking on the "Enable" button.

One of the most sophisticated, but easy to use startup managers is Soluto from http://www.soluto.com. This program is unlike any other startup manager because it uses a "genome" or database of startup information compiled by its large number of users. Soluto performs a "boot analysis" each time the computer boots, and displays each item loaded into one of three categories: No brainer (remove from boot); Potentially Removable; and Cannot be Removed. By clicking on each item under the first two categories, the actual boot time will be displayed (which may vary with each boot), as well as the boot recommendations of other users. Clicking on the "Advanced" link under each opened item will provide comprehensive information about that item, allowing for the user to make a more informed decision about whether or not to have the item load at boot, load after boot when the computer is idle, or not load at all. It is an easy process for the user to comment and include his recommendations in the genome database. Soluto may be one of the most unique but effective startup managers available.

By controlling what programs load at boot, disabling any that are not really necessary, the user may find his computer boots much faster, runs faster, has fewer crashes, and better overall performance. There is no good reason not to periodically clean the boot startup sequence and have a faster computer.

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