Your System's Startup Process May Do More Than you Think

It does not matter if you are a tech geek or someone who uses a computer but does not know the first thing about fixing one, there is one aspect of a Windows machine that is often overlooked - the start up process. I have been working with and repairing computers for years and I cannot tell you haw many times the start up process is either the cause of an issue or affected by the issue plaguing the machine. I'll be perfectly honest, even though I am well aware of the importance of this portion of the boot process I too have been known to neglect the start up process on my own laptops and other devices. 

Starting Your Computer

There are a few things that go on during the boot process for every computer. Honestly I could probably write an entire e-book on the subject. That is not why this post is being written however. I am only meaning to focus on one portion of the procedure and that is the software that is initiated upon boot. There is often applications that are set to run as soon as the system starts. The problem with some of these is that you, the computer owner, never gave permission for these applications to run every time you turn on your computer. 

When you have applications that start as soon as you boot into Windows you have a major drain on resources. The most important of these resources is your memory. It is not uncommon for some of these applications to hog more than 25% of your system memory all to themselves. That might not seem like a lot but when you consider that the legitimate software takes up about 50% of your memory, you now have about 75% being spoken for. That does not leave much for anything else you want to do.

One of the biggest complaints that I get from people that call me is a slow computer. When this is the case the usual remedy is to run virus and malware scans. Once these scan run and eliminate the root cause of the slowdown the computer will go back to normal. Of course, that is in an ideal scenario. But what if these scan are run, they find a threat or two and eliminate them, but the system is still slow? What do we do now?

This is when people typically look in a variety of places for the cause of the slowdown but they rarely check the start up process. In all actuality it is a pretty simple thing to fix. It just takes a little bit of research, patience, and common sense. 

Should I Remove It?

One of the biggest questions that people have when they start looking through system files and processes is "Should I remove it?" People are often concerned that they might delete or disable something that their system needs and by doing so will end up doing more harm than good.  This is where you need to use a little common sense and get some research going. But if we are going to try and show you how to fix these issues we should start from  the beginning. Let me show you what to do.

Step 1 :  The start up process is what we are looking to fix right? So let's start there and see what we have running every time you turn on your computer. This is rather simple, all you need to do is go to your start menu and find the RUN command line. If it is not there right at the bottom of the menu then all you need to do is click on All Programs, then click on Accessories, then when that menu shows up look for and click on Run. Once you do this you will be given a little window with a place to type a command. In this command line you will type MSCONFIG and then hit enter.

Step 2 :  Once you do this a window will come up. It will look like figure 1a below.

Figure 1a

Once you have this menu open you can see that the tabs at the top show different options all related to the booting of your computer. What we are looking for however is the tab titled what else but "Startup".

Before going to that tab however it would probably do you some good if you have never seen this menu before to look through it. It never does any harm to look. I know that people have been known to say that if you do not know what you are doing you should not even be in the menu in the first place. I disagree. This can be a big learning experience for some people. Take a look around the various tabs and see what you have access to. It never hurts to look around and see exactly what things are made up of. 25 years ago this is how I learned about computers. I taught myself how to program  and all about various operating systems all by just, "looking around".

Step 3 :  At this point you should have clicked on the "Startup" tab and if you did it will show you something like what is pictured below in figure 2a.

Figure 2a

What we have in this menu is a list of all the programs that your computer is being told to load every time you turn on or reboot your computer. This is where the research comes in. There are various sites that you can look through that will give you information on any and all of these processes. I sometimes use a site called Uniblue. Here is a link to their process library. No matter where you find the information the important thing is that you find it. Once you get to this step the rest is sometimes trial and error. I don't mean to sound like it is a crapshoot. But to be perfectly honest, everyone's computer setup is often very different. Although there are things that are the same on all of them there are a lot of differences as well. Things are personalized and the programs that people install can sometimes be listed here. If I go ahead and start telling people to delete this and delete that I could be causing a lot of damage.

The point is, you have to take much of this on a case by case basis. See what you have on your system, do the research and try to determine if you have something causing a problem or not. My goal here was to show you where to look. Most people do not have the faintest clue about the menu I have shown you. Knowing where it is, how to bring it up, and what is listed on it is more information than most people have. You are more than halfway to a cleaner running system once you get to this point.

Where To Go From Here

I have been fixing computers for a very long time. Like I said above, there are a lot of things from computer to computer that are the same. They have to be. This is because they run the same operating system. But, and it is a big but, there are just as many things about a system that are different from one to the next. Many people take great pains in personalizing their computers. Even people who are not computer savvy. They might not have their own encrypted files or certain services turned on or off based on their needs, but even the novice will make an effort to personalize what is theirs.

You just have to remember that when you boot your computer there is a large variety of things going on. One of these is your computer being told what to load right away and what not to load. If you start having problems that were not there a couple hours ago or a day ago even, check your start up process. Chances are there is something in there that shouldn't be.