HOME
TOPICS
ABOUT ME
MAIL

 
A better way of checking on startup programs is to open the full list.
  technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

How to find out which startup programs to keep


Sept. 30, 2001


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2001, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2001, The Syracuse Newspapers

   Two weeks ago I described how Windows users can control the programs that run on their own when Windows starts up. I praised Startup Cop, a free program that lets you disable startup programs without deleting them. (That article is at twcny.rr.com/technofile/texts/tec091601.html.)
   I got a lot of mail asking what seems like an obvious question. "It's great to be able to stop some of these programs from running," one reader asked. "But which ones are safe to disable? How can I find out what they do so I can make an intelligent decision?"
   You could always guess, I suppose. And you sometimes can figure things out on your own, as long as the names of these programs make sense. "Systray," for example, is easy to figure out, since it's the System Tray where the clock sits at the right end of the Taskbar.
   But what about ftctrl32.exe? How about isdbdc.exe? The alphabet soup of program names can make a grown system administrator cry. There are too many such programs to keep track of, and more are arriving every day.
   Fortunately, I've found a Web site that lists as many autorunning programs as possible and tells what they do and whether you can get rid of them.
   The site was created by Paul Anthony Collins of Histon, near Cambridge, England. The main site is at www.pacs-portal.co.uk. Click the button labeled "Startup Tips" to go to the section that lists startup programs.
   Collins has organized the list in two ways. You might miss the second organizational method if you're not careful.
   The first method shows a list of letters from A to Z. You click on the letter any program starts with to find out more about it. (Click on "S," for example, to learn more about "Systray.")
   But a better way of checking on startup programs is to open the full list. Near the bottom of the main "Startup Tips" page you'll see a link labeled "For those of you lucky to have fast connections: - Full list." Click the "Full list" link to view the complete list. Save the page's location as a bookmark or Favorite so you can get back to it quickly.
   Collins has another treat near the end of the "Startup Tips" page. He shows three links that can help you whenever my articles and his site aren't enough. One points to a Microsoft article and the others are from individuals who are sharing their expertise.
   My mail also included a lot of reminders that I had failed to explain something in my first article. I had said that Windows Me does not come with the MSCONFIG utility. It does come with it, but only on some PCs. Manufacturers are free to remove MSCONFIG or to hide it away, and some of them do one or the other.