It is frustrating to only have a few minutes to get on the computer when it takes 5 minutes to get it started. This is what happens when you load software that likes to put itself in the startup. For some reason, many software companies are very sure that you will use their software so much, that you would automatically like it in your startup.

Removing items from your startup is a good way to diagnose problems also. You can single out programs that are running in the background that are in the startup. If a program keeps reappearing in your startup, it could be a bad program such as a keylogger. If you’ve narrowed it down to such a program you can search for a way to remove it.

Do not worry about removing a necessary program from the startup, you can start the utility again and replace the checkmark to make it run again.

The following are the steps you need For Windows XP along with some screenshots. Windows Vista has a better utility called “Windows Defender” in the “Tools” category of the programs. If you need help with Vista, use the system help menu to search for “Windows Defender”.

1. Go to the “start” button, then choose “run”.

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2. Type “msconfig” in the window and click the “ok” button.

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3. The System Configuration Utility program will start, choose the “Startup” tab.

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4. Uncheck the programs which you would like to remove from the startup. You can check or uncheck as many as you like. If you do not know what the program is, I would only one at a time so that you know how the system reacts after you restart. Should there be a problem, you know what program to check back into the startup.

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5. Choose “OK”. A window will give you the choice to restart or exit without restart. It’s ok to choose exit without restart and continue with other tasks, the system will just use the changes at the next startup.

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6. When you restart, the System Configuration Utility will send a message asking if you would like to change anything in the utility and give you the option to stop this window from appearing again. If you’re done you can choose to not show this message again.

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That’s all there is to changing the startup. Many good programs will have options to remove the program from startup from inside the program. If they do not, you must do it this way. Some programs will have a name that makes it hard to pinpoint in the System Configuration Utility, so you may have to use process of elimination to find the process.

Using the CTRL, ALT, and Delete keys at the same time will bring up the Windows Task Manager. This utility will show you what is running and allow you to shut down the specific program. This can assist you in finding any sneaky programs in the startup.