If your Windows Vista machine starts up really slow (in other words, taking more time to start up than it used to) then you might wanted to follow these steps to get rid of those programs that you really don’t want to be started up when Windows starts.

There are 3 different ways you can control the startup programs.

1. Using the System Configuration utility
2. Using the Registry Editor
3. Using the Services Snap-in

Using the System Configuration Utility

I’ll show you the easier way first, using the System Configuration utility.

Step-1:

Click on the Start button and type-in “msconfig” and press the Enter key.

If you are using Windows XP then you have to click the “Start” button and click the “Run…” menu option and then in the “Run” dialog you have to type-in “msconfig” and press the Enter key. The other steps remain the same.

Step-2:

Windows Vista might prompt you with the “Windows needs your permission to continue.” dialog box. Click on the “Continue” button.

Step-3:

Windows will open the “System Configuration” utility. Click on the “Startup” tab and you’ll see all the programs that Windows starts when it starts with a check mark in front. Go thru the list and uncheck the programs that you don’t want Windows to start.

(Be extra careful with the “Enable All” button as I’m sure you don’t want that long list of programs to start when Windows starts. Don’t worry if you hit the “Disable All” button, all it does is that it will uncheck all the programs listed on the dialog to make it a bit easier on your unchecking ability, those programs will be still be there on your computer)

Step-4:

Click the "OK” button and Windows will prompt you to restart the computer.

Go ahead and let it restart and you’ll see an improved startup performance if you’ve really cleared all the startup mess.

Using the Registry Editor

If you are comfortable with editing the Registry entries then here is what you do,

Step-1:

Launch Registry Editor and navigate to one of these keys,

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServicesOnce
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnceEx

Step-2:

Choose any program that you wanted to remove from startup by right clicking on the program name and then clicking on the “Delete” menu option.

Warning: As always, you should be careful editing Windows Registry entries. Details of using the Registry Editor can be found here.

Using the Services Snap-in

Apart from programs there are services (processes) that Windows starts when starting up. Some of the processes are critical to keep Windows stable but some of them you can configure to not start automatic. Follow these steps to configure the startup processes,

Step-1:

Click the Start button and type “services” on the Search box and press the Enter key.

If you are using Windows XP the click on the “Start” button and then click on the “Run…” menu option and then type-in “services.msc” on the “Run” dialog and press the Enter key. The other steps remain the same.

Step-2:

On the Services snap-in locate the services (processes) that you want to configure and right click on to select the “Properties” menu option.

Step-3:

On the “Service Properties” dialog change the “Startup Type:” from Automatic to “Manual”.

Step-4:

Click the “OK” button to dismiss the dialog and close the Services snap-in.

Now, when your computer restarts the next time these processes that you’ve configured will not start automatic. A note of caution: be sure to make sure that you configure the processes that you are absolutely sure.

If you are not sure about the processes that you wanted to remove, then you can use the WinTasks website to find out about the processes that you see running on your system and then can make an informed decision of whether to let it run at startup or not.