This tech tip hails from the deep halls of my mind, a dark place filled with horrors and twisted imaginings.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes you install a program on your PC, and it launches some part of itself when you first boot? Apple’s Quicktime, for example, loads the ‘qttask.exe’ process, even if you turn off that annoying icon in the system tray. If you’re like me, you hate having uninvated guests at the bootup party. Usually, these automatically launched tasks do nothing, and merely take up resources.

So, let’s see how we can get rid of them, shall we?

First off, this tip only works for Windows XP… unless you’re willing to be a little inventive. See, there is a tool called ‘msconfig’ in XP that doesn’t come standard with, say, Windows 2000. But, for some reason, the tool works just fine in 2000, if you download it. Here is a good place. They also have a Windows 95/98 version, but if you are running either of those operating systems… well, get a new computer.

Anyway, once you have it downloaded and saved (if running a non-XP environment), or on your XP desktop, pull up a run window by clicking ‘Start’, then ‘Run’. In the box type ‘msconfig’. If you are running an OS other than XP, you may have to type the full path (i.e. C:\msconfig). A window will come up:

See all those things? Every line is an item that Windows automatically starts at boot time. These things use up CPU time and memory. And since a lot of them are completely unnecessary, I see no reason to continue letting them run.

NOTE: I assume NO responsibility for any damage or loss of data you may incur while doing this. If you’re careful, you should be fine, but there’s always an element of risk.

Now, see ‘Acrotray’, ‘iTunesHelper’, and ‘qttask’? These are Adobe Acrobat, iTunes, and Quicktime tastks, respectively, and none need to be running at boot time. So uncheck those boxes. ‘WLTRAY’ is a component of my wireless LAN connection, so I’ll leave that be (actually, I’ll leave the first five or six items on that list be, as they are somewhat important). Similarly, ‘VPTray’ is part of my Symantec services, and is a good thing to leave running.

It takes a little knowledge, or at least an intuitive understanding of how to use Google to search for what a process does, but you can eliminate many useless startup items this way, decrease boot time, and maybe speed up your machine just a bit.

Now, click okay and let your machine reboot. When it does, a nag box will come up saying that you used msconfig to alter your boot sequence. Ignore it and cleck the ‘Do Not Show Me Again’ box.

There you go! An easy tweak.