Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
When you start Windows many programs start automatically as well. It can be difficult to identify everything and whether or not they're all necessary.
What's all this stuff running after I boot Windows?
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When you start Windows you're starting much more than just the operating system. Many applications that have been installed will also have tools or utilities that start automatically when the system starts or later when you log in. And there's a bunch of places that start-up tasks get defined; besides your programs-startup folder there are several places in the registry as well.
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Many start up tasks are necessary to carry out the things you expect your computer to do. For example if you run MSN Messenger then chances are you'll want want it to be running as soon as the computer starts. Another important example might be virus scanning software.
However, many are not required at all. My favorite (or least favorite) examples are the Real Audio and Quick Time media players. The players themselves are fine and I use them both. However they both also install additional tasks that are started each time you log in to Windows. In most cases they simply check for software updates, but in some cases they also periodically present you with pop-up "messages" that, in my opinion, are really just another form of pop-up spam.
And some start up tasks we're never really sure about until we disable them and something breaks.
Identifying what gets started when you log in has gotten a lot easier in Windows XP. A program called "MSCONFIG" is included that lists exactly what happens on startup. (Start, Run, type "MSCONFIG", and then select the startup tab). Using MSCONFIG it's very easy to turn off those items you don't want starting every time.
In Windows 2000 and Windows 9x there was no embedded support but there are tools available. Sysinternals has the freeware tool autoruns that's recently been updated to make deleting auto-start items easier. For years I ran a free download utility also called Startup Cop which was published in a PC Magazine article. Alas, the utility is no longer free as PC Magazine's library is now subscription only, but I still recommend it. Advanced Startup Cop while also not free is another application that will help you identify and control what's running.
So what's safe to delete? Well, if you're not sure it's probably safest to leave it alone for now ... BUT ... for the record, I have both realsched.exe (Real Audio's annoy-ware) and qttask.exe (Quicktime's equivalent) disabled.
And I'll look at how to identify the tasks running on your machine in a future post.
Article C1847 - October 7, 2003 « »
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
February 11, 2010 5:57 AM
Hi Leo, I am currently experiencing difficulties with my Disk defragmenter, it asks to start CHDSK and SCANDISK. I have cleaned the registry, cleaned my Desktop, hard drive with CCleaner and done practically everything I know of to help my PC performance. Please note that I am only 14..I know you may think pretty young, but not stupid. I am learning Visual Basic and java languages in hopes to create applications sometime. For that I need a good computer. Any help appreciated. My specs: Nvidia NForce 9800 GTX+, 2.40 GHZ, 2.78GB Ram, SP3. I only need it to improve my PC. Thanks,
Stefan Petro
March 29, 2011 8:40 AM
The problem with MSCONFIG and similar is that they need administrator rights to run. In itself, not a problem (apart from the time lost in logging out and then logging back in again with addministrator rights), BUT they are not going to find things that are tied to your normal login, e.g. the infamous "Documents and Settings", HKCU in the registry.
29-Mar-2011
December 10, 2012 2:45 PM
Years ago I read of this but I never found out the minimum programs you could have running. I'm not sure of most of mine. I must run with about 40 programs.
February 25, 2013 5:16 PM
trying to open a program but the pc is saying The program is already running i closed and reopened my pc but its still saying the same thng
February 26, 2013 1:40 AM
@Siou
That is a problem which sometimes happens when some components of a program are running, but the user interface is not active.
When you get a message saying that the program is already running, you can shut it down by running the Task Manager (ctrl+shift+esc), clicking the Processes tab, scrolling down to the offending program and clicking the End Process button.
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