TODAY'S TOURBUS TOPIC: START-UP APPLICATIONS

Howdy, y'all, and greetings from blustery Irvine, California, a large passenger aircraft manufactured by the Boeing company. :P

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Start-Up Applications

The PC users on our little bus of Internet happiness are probably sick of me touting the benefits of MSCONFIG, a nifty, hidden utility in Windows 98, 98SE, ME, and XP that lets you improve your computer's performance and reliability. So, out of respect for those frustrated riders, I won't tell you that you can find a step-by-step guide on how to use MSCONFIG at

http://www.netsquirrel.com/msconfig/

Nope. Not going to mention that at all. :P

I also won't mention that this guide tells you what MSCONFIG is and why it is important to you and your Windows-based computer. After all, you already know that:

1. Every time you boot your computer a whole mess of "hidden" programs load in the background.

2. Some of these hidden programs are essential, but most aren't.

3. Turning off some of these hidden programs can significantly

And since you already know all of that, there's really no point in my mentioning that MSCONFIG lets you turn off these unnecessary programs.

So I won't waste your time in mine talking about MSCONFIG in today's TOURBUS post. Am I a thoughtful guy or what?! :P

Seriously, though, for those of you who already know about MSCONFIG, I have a WONDERFUL resource that I want to share with you: Paul "Pacman" Collins' Start-Up Applications page at

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_pages/startup_full.htm

One of the most frustrating things about MSCONFIG is trying to figure out what things like "Avgserv9.exe" and "Gilat SOM Enumerator" actually ARE and whether or not they really need to be running all the time. That's where the Start-Up Applications page comes in.

Collins has created the definitive, alphabetical list of pretty much every start-up application known to man. In fact, if you were to print out the Start-Up Applications web page on your printer, you would need almost 120 sheets of paper.

In other words, Collins' Start-Up Applications page is *big.* So, the next time you are in the startup tab of MSCONFIG and are wondering what a particular startup item is, hop on over to Paul "Pacman" Collins' Start-Up Applications page.

Now, aren't you glad I didn't talk about MSCONFIG? :P

What about Windows 95/NT/2000?

As long as I am not talking about MSCONFIG, let me also not mention that MSCONFIG is not (quite) available for Windows 95, NT, or 2000. But don't panic. The free "Startup Control Panel" program at

http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

will work just as well. And if you have Windows NT or 2000, you can also download the official, Windows XP version of MSCONFIG at

http://www.thetechguide.com/downloads.html

But you didn't hear this from me. :P

That's it for today. Have a safe and happy week and we'll talk again soon!