BOOT CAMP 227 (28/05/02)

WINDOWS STARTUP

The next time you switch on your Windows 98/SE/ME/XP PC, and before you start any programs or applications try this. Go to Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools and click System Information (or type ‘msinfo32’ – without the quotes -- in Run on the Start menu) and the System Information window will appear. About two thirds of the way down there’s an entry for ‘system resources free’, if this number is less than 80% or so you could be heading for trouble!

There’s a very good chance it will be considerably less than 80% and it’s not unusual for a well used PC to boot up with less than 60% of its resources available. In other words even before you’ve started using your PC around a third of its potential computing power has disappeared, so where has it all gone?

The culprit, or rather culprits are all of the programs that load automatically with Windows, most of which never asked for permission to do so when they were installed. Within a few months of normal use your once sprightly new PC could have a couple of dozen or more programs, utilities, monitors and ‘services’ running in the background. At best, if allowed to accumulate they will make your PC slow to boot up and sluggish, at worst it will become unstable and liable to crash.

In fact very few programs need to be running all of the time, the exceptions are a virus scanner and firewall, configuration monitors like CleanSweep and a handful of critical components, necessary to keep your PC’s hardware and operating system ticking over, almost everything else is superfluous.

There are two main places to look, to see what programs are running on your PC. The first is the System Tray next to the clock; many of the programs that load with Windows are represented there by icons. The other place is the System Information dialogue box, which we looked at a moment ago. In the left hand pane click on the plus sign next to Software Environment and double-click on Startup Programs, if it’s a long list and there are lots of entries you are not familiar with, it’s time for some pruning!

However, before you do anything make a note of how long it takes for your PC to boot to a useable state – i.e. from the moment you press the on-switch to the point when the hourglass disappears and the hard disc drive stops chattering.

Begin the cull in your StartUp folder, which you’ll find by clicking on Start > Programs. Here you will find shortcuts to the programs that load automatically, after Windows has finished booting up. Mine is empty, if I want to start a program I click on the icon! You can safely right-click and delete anything you find here as they are only shortcuts. The deleted shortcut is sent to the Recycle Bin so if you later change your mind you can easily reinstate it.

Next, if there are any programs in the System Tray that you want to disable try right-clicking on the icon and see if there’s an Options, Setup or Properties menu, which will allow you to remove it from the Start Up, list. However, there’s an easier way and that’s to use the System Configuration Utility, which is included in Windows 98 onwards. This lets you disable most of the programs that start with Windows and you can quickly and safely judge for yourself the effect it has on your PC.

To start the utility type ‘msconfig’ in Run on the Start menu. Click the Startup tab and you’ll see a list of all the programs and services that start with Windows, with check boxes. Some you must keep, like System Tray (unless you completely empty everything it contains, including the volume control icon…), and you should leave things like LoadPowerProfile (usually two instances), your virus scanner, firewall and anything that relates to your modem, video or sound cards, UPS or any other essential or frequently used peripherals.

If you’re unsure about any of the entries there’s a useful summary of the most common items on the Startup list at:

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_pages/startup_full.htm

Entries marked ‘Y’ are best left alone, anything marked ‘N’ is not required, ‘U’ entries can be removed at your discretion and ‘X’ means you definitely do not need it.

Almost everything on the list can be disabled but on no account un-tick boxes willy-nilly. I strongly suggest that you uncheck just one or two items at a time and make a note of them on a piece of paper. After you click OK you will be asked to restart your PC, watch carefully for any error messages and you might also want to make a note of the time it takes to boot up, and any changes to your system resources, to identify the programs that are really slowing your system down. If you want to play safe only remove half a dozen or so items in the first session then use the PC for a day or two to make sure everything is working properly.

If you’ve disabled any items, after boot up Windows will warn you that the PC is in a ‘diagnostic’ or ‘selective start up’ mode, you may choose to cancel this message (‘Do not show this message again’) once you’ve finished your spring clean. It’s safe to leave Windows in this condition but be warned, if you ever click ‘Normal Startup’ (General tab in msconfig) all of your handiwork will be undone and you’ll be back to square one.

Next week –  Living with Broadband, part 1

JARGON FILTER

FIREWALL

Program that monitors Internet activity, blocking unauthorised attempts to access files on your PC

POWER PROFILE

Power management settings for your PC, accessed via the Power icon in Control Panel

UPS

Uninterruptible Power Supply -- battery power unit, designed to keep your PC working during a power cut, to prevent data loss and to enable it to be safely shut down

TOP TIP

If you’re a real speed freak and know your way around Windows 9x here’s a way to shave a few more seconds off the time it takes to boot. Open Windows Explorer, right-click on the file ‘Msdos.sys’, which you’ll find in the root of the C:\ drive, uncheck the ‘Read Only’ attribute then double-click the file icon and open it with Notepad. At then end of the section labelled [Options] add the following two lines:

BootDelay=0

Logo=0

Save and re-boot. These commands disable a 2-second delay during boot up and disable the Windows ‘splash screen’. The delay allows time to press F8, to get to the Safe Mode start. You still can, but now you’ve got to be quick (Win 95), or hold down the Ctrl key at boot up (Win 98).