A lot of people have problems with their computer running slowly on startup. One reason for this can be the programs which are set to run on startup.

In Microsoft Windows XP go to;

• Start > All Programs > Startup
• Have a look at which programs you have running on startup of the operating system.
• If you have programs which don’t need to be started on startup then delete them from startup

Next go to;

• Start > Run and type ‘msconfig’
• Click ‘Ok’
• You will then be presented with the System Configuration Utility
• Select the ‘Startup’ tab


This is the view you will be presented with

• You can then see which startup programs and utilities are running on startup.
• Be careful which ones you remove and make sure you know what they are. To remove one of these processes on startup just simply untick it and click ‘Apply’.
• If you decide you want to add the program or process back to your startup then simply go back into the System Configuration Utility and put a tick next to the process and click ‘Apply’.

In Microsoft Windows Vista the process is pretty much the same. The only difference is;

• When trying access Start > Run as you would in Microsoft Windows XP. By default the ‘Run’ option is not available in Vista. The easiest way to display the ‘Run’ window is to press ‘Windows + R’ on your keyboard. This will then display the box and you can continue as per above steps.

Microsoft Product Screen Shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation