Cleaning up unwanted startup programs

Many freeware and commercial application programs have a habit of setting themselves up to run automatically upon Windows startup. This can contribute to the gradual decline in startup speed that most Windows XP systems (and windows PCs in general) experience. Also, having programs that you only use selectively, or not at all, load automatically is a waste of system resources that could be better used for other things.

To top it off, many internet nasty programs such as spyware programs, viruses and Trojan horses will install themselves into one of the automatic start locations on your system in order to make sure that they are run on startup. So the point is, take a look at what is currently running every time you load your PC, and disable what you don't need or can't identify.

To do this: -

(1). The first place you should go is “start | programs | startup” which is a directory Windows XP uses to launch application shortcuts on boot-up. If you remove the shortcuts from this directory, the applications will not load on startup. This directory can also be a repository for much badness such as spyware and virus software. So if there are files here which are not shortcuts and you don't recognize them, you may wish to consider removing them anyways, as Windows will not place critical files in this directory.

(2). The next location for removing unnecessary startup files is the handy MSCONFIG utility that has been resurrected from the graveyard of Windows 9x especially for XP. Go to “start | run” and type “msconfig” to access the utility. The “startup” tab in MSCONFIG provides access to several other applications that are started at boot up and are running in the background. By examining their Filenames and directories, you should be able to get a feeling for what is necessary and what is not. Be aware than several viruses and worms have a habit of disguising themselves with authoritative sounding Windows system file names, such as win32.spybot.worm present in the above screenshot as MSCONFIG32.EXE. Leave these for now if you are not sure. The other method for removing these programs is through the programs themselves, as many applications, for example MSN messenger, contain the option to remove the software from startup.

Now go for it….. and next time you feel that your PC is taking less time to boot.

Alpha Numerical arrangement in window

Window XP sorts files in an ascending order which have digits in their file name. Like document ‘ajay151.doc’ listed after ajay15.doc and ajay16.doc. But if you want to arrange them like this ajay15.doc, ajay151.doc, ajay16.doc, ajay161.doc then you has to set registry, after that OS will access all characters as alphabets.

(1). Open the Registry Editor and navigate the key.
“HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer”

(2). Create new entry “NoStrCmpLogical” using ‘Edit | New | DWORD value’.

(3). Then open it and set the value data ‘1’ in the “Edit DWORD value” Window and click OK.

(4). Next step you know….so do it. Restart your PC to see registry set effect.

Disable Error Reporting Service

Whenever a program crashes in Window XP, an “Error Report” comes up asking for some information on the crash. If you are getting irk with these report then you can disable them.

(1). Go to Start | Run and open Control panel.
(2). Double click on the ‘System’ Icon and select ‘Advanced’.
(3). Select ‘Error Reporting’ button.
(4). Select “Disable Error Reporting”. After you select this option, error reports will not be generated.
(5). If you select the option “But notify me when critical errors occur” it will notify you when a critical error occurs, even you have disabled error reporting.
(6). Now click on OK and have fun no interrupt (error) will irk you.

Share Folders quickly

Window xp allows us to share data within the network by letting us share folders with other users. If you want to share more than one folder, there is a simple way to do it by using the “Share Folder Wizard”. Follow these steps to learn how to launch the wizard and start sharing.

(1). Go to Start | Run type SHRPUBW.EXE and click OK.
(2). It will launch the “Create Shared Folder Wizard” click on Next to continue.
(3). Browse to the folder you want to share.
(4). Enter the share name by which you would like to share this folder.
(5). Enter the share description in case you want to (it’s not compulsory).
(6). Next window allow us to set permission. You can choose the way you would like the share the data and the kind of access permission you want to set for different users.
(7). Once you have done with the above, simply restart the process and share more folders without having to exit the wizard