Posts Tagged: msconfig

Email of the week — 1 Comment
9
Jul 09

Email of the Week – 011

Manatee Mailbox
Creative Commons License photo credit: Joe Shlabotnik

QUESTION

Name:  Joanne

From:   Portland, OR

OS:      Windows XP

———————-
On May 27 you talked talked about the # of processes that open at Start-up. Following your instructions I found I have 60 processes opening. I went in and unchecked several I didn’t need, however when I go back to normal start-up at closing,restarting my computer and then again to into msconfig/Start-up, the problems are again checked. How do I keep them unchecked?

Thanks
I’m learning a lot from you, really appreciate it.

ANSWER

Thanks Joanne. (She’s referring to my tip about MSCONFIG found here.) You are doing everything right except Continue reading →

Computer User Group / General Computer Tips / Riding Shotgun with Rick — 14 Comments
26
Apr 09

10 Skills EVERY computer user should have (or learn)

I originally posted this list in January 2007. However, through my keen observation skills, I discovered that all computer users have not yet read and digested this information. For this reason, I’m posting it again because I won’t stop working to educate computer users until every computer user knows these 10 skills.

Computers have become almost a main stream household appliance. Whether you have been using a computer for fifteen years or one, these skills should be second nature:

  1. Cut, Copy, Paste
  2. Print just what you want (word processing, email, web)
  3. Backup your address book
  4. Select (highlight) text or files
  5. Properly uninstall unwanted programs
  6. Burn a CD
  7. Download files from the Internet
  8. Use MSCONFIG ; Another MSCONFIG tip
  9. Search the Internet
  10. Attach Files to an email

If you already know how to do these skills, please pass this article along to someone who doesn’t…help me help other computer users.

General Computer Tips / Riding Shotgun with Rick — 1 Comment
11
Feb 08

7 Great places to start learning

GHCA's Computer Lab Running Gentoo Linux

photo credit: Extra Ketchup

Not long ago, a commenter on the web site suggested we put up some links to our some of our best and most visited tips. I thought it was a great idea, and here are seven that I came up with. If you have your own favorite or most helpful HelpMeRick.com tips, please share them with everyone by leaving a comment below.

Remember to tell us which are your favorite HMR tips by leaving a comment below.

Computer User Group — No Comments
11
Jul 07

All Q&A Session – July 2007

I don’t do it too often, but this month I decided to hold an all Q&A (2 hours) user group meeting. It truly is amazing how many questions 30 or 40 ravenous computer users can generate. Sometimes one question leads to another, and an entire “topic” can take up a half hour. You have to be at one of the meetings to truly experience the type of knowledge and information that gets shared and explored. Some of today’s topics included:

  1. Creating a “Life Poster” from digital photos with Shutterfly’s software (hint to Adam for future topic)
  2. Installing and using Ubuntu (the embers are smoking)
  3. Why Picasa DOES NOT CONTAIN ANY PHOTOS and where to find a photo’s true location
  4. Sorting your email address book
  5. Creating, modifying, and deleting Microsoft Word templates
  6. Printing problems
  7. Keyboard shortcuts for closing windows or programs (Alt + F4)
  8. Web 2.0 questions (carry over from last month’s topic)
  9. Setting download speed preferences for watching videos in Real Player, QuickTime or Windows Media Player
  10. What is Active X and why you might need it or use it.
  11. Transferring and viewing photos on the road without a laptop
  12. Showing the “address bar” in Windows Explorer windows
  13. MSCONFIG – deciphering what to uncheck and what not to check
  14. Defrag – Does it cure all computer woes? (Hint:  NO) I revealed that with my last computer (which I used for more than four years), I can only remember defragmenting my computer twice…and that computer is still running strong for a neighbor who also never defrag’s on my advice.
  15. Installing Windows XP on a new computer that came with Vista
  16. FREE Internet phone calls – Skype, Skype phones at Radio Shack
  17. Are Uninterubtable Power Systems (UPS) a good idea
  18. Securing a wi-fi network
  19. Using an older computer on a wi-fi network
  20. Is AVG better than AdAware (hint: they fight different bad guys)
  21. Drawing lines on a graph made on graph paper with horizontal, vertical and 45 degree grid lines
  22. Backup questions
  23. How to clear the address bar in the browser window
  24. Downloading pictures to Picasa
  25. Creating Picasa web albums
  26. Emailing photos from Picasa
  27. Breakdown of pricing of Ubuntu systems sold at Dell
  28. Instant messaging programs – Trillian (communicates with all systems), AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk
  29. Creating a CD in Picasa
  30. Woot!

These are just the main questions that I could think of, but aren’t you kicking yourself now for not coming to the meeting?!

Windows Tips — 9 Comments
21
Apr 07

The powerful and easy to use msconfig – Video Tip

Msconfig (a.k.a. Microsoft Configuration Utility) allows us to tweak a little extra speed from our boot ups and increase the available memory to our systems. You can find this utility by clicking on Start –> Programs –> Accessories –> System Tooks –> System Information. Once there, click Tools from the menus and then Configuration Utility. However, the fastest way to get to it is to:

1. Click on Start
2. Click on Run
3. Type: msconfig
4. Press Enter on your keyboard.

Once inside the configuration utility, click the Startup tab. This will list a number of programs that start up automatically upon boot up. You can simply uncheck the ones you don’t want to start automatically. Some ideas to uncheck are duplicate entries (uncheck one), AOL system tray, Real Player, Greetings workshop reminders (unless you really use them), and Quicken bill minder (unless you use it) are among a few. Leave anything checked that you aren’t sure about including Scan registry, System tray and your anti-virus programs.

This web site is a nice searchable list of almost all possible startup items and what they are associated with in case you are at a loss of what some of the entries are.

msconfig post boot screen

When you finish unchecking items you don’t want to star, click OK and your system will need to reboot. When Windows restarts, a screen will appear telling you about the changes you just made with MSCONFIG. Click the check box on the screen and click OK as illustrated in the picture.

Watch our short video tutorial on how this process works by clicking the Play button below.

Riding Shotgun with Rick / Windows Tips — 3 Comments
7
Mar 07

Searchable List of Startup Items found in MSCONFIG

I just found one of the easier, searchable lists of items that can be found in the Startup tab of MSCONFIG. The site also lists whether or not it can be or should be removed from your startup. Click here to visit the site.

OnAir Solutions — 18 Comments
27
Jan 07

How to get into Safe Mode when F8 doesn’t work

Some computers will refuse to go into safe mode no matter how quickly you press F8.

If you are using Windows XP, here is how to force your computer to boot up with the safe mode prompt:

  1. Go to START->RUN
  2. Type 'msconfig' into the box (without the quote marks)
  3. Click on the BOOT.INI tab
  4. Check the little box that says /SAFEBOOT
  5. Click Apply and OK
  6. Restart your computer.

To get your computer to stop booting up with the options menu, just repeat this process and uncheck the /SAFEBOOT option

 

Riding Shotgun with Adam — 1 Comment
12
Sep 06

Using “Run” to get places

If you have listened to the show much, you have probably heard us tell people to go into "msconfig." This tip works in Windows XP for sure, but some commands may not work in other versions of Windows.

msconfig is one run command that takes you into the Microsoft Configuration Utility, but there are other handy run commands, here are most of them.

To use any of these click on START -> RUN and type the word or phrase in the box provided.

Add Hardware Wizard
hdwwiz.cpl

Add/Remove Programs
appwiz.cpl

Automatic Updates
wuaucpl.cpl

Bluetooth Transfer Wizard
fsquirt

Calculator
calc

Character Map
charmap

Check Disk Utility
chkdsk

Clipboard Viewer
clipbrd

Date and Time Properties
timedate.cpl

Device Manager
devmgmt.msc

Disk Cleanup Utility
cleanmgr

Disk Defragment
dfrg.msc

Disk Management
diskmgmt.msc

Disk Partition Manager
diskpart

Display Properties
control desktop

Display Properties
desk.cpl

Display Properties (w/Appearance Tab Preselected)
control color

Dr. Watson System Troubleshooting Utility
drwtsn32

Driver Verifier Utility
verifier

File Signature Verification Tool
sigverif

Findfast
findfast.cpl

Folders Properties < —Nice
control folders

Fonts
control fonts

Free Cell Card Game
freecell

Game Controllers
joy.cpl

Group Policy Editor (XP Prof)
gpedit.msc

Hearts Card Game
mshearts

Iexpress Wizard
iexpress

Internet Properties
inetcpl.cpl

IP Configuration (Refreshes DHCP & Re-Registers DNS)
ipconfig /registerdns

IP Configuration (Display DHCP Class ID)
ipconfig /showclassid

IP Configuration (Modifies DHCP Class ID)
ipconfig /setclassid

Keyboard Properties
control keyboard

Logs You Out Of Windows < –Beware
logoff

Windows Tips — 1 Comment
18
Aug 06

Count your processes

"My computer is running slow." This complaint tops the list as the number one computer owner complaint over the past few years. Once an infliction for older computers only, slow computer syndrome (SCS) can affect even the newest and most powerful of computers. With Windows XP, there is one quick barometer that you can use to test the health of your computer; the Processes list. Too many processes running automatically at startup can indicate either a poorly configured machine or sign of a serious computer problem related to viruses, spyware or both.

In the Windows world, a process is a program (or part of a program) that is currently running. Microsoft Windows itself starts at least fifteen to twenty processes when we turn our computers on for the day. Over the years, I have developed a mental chart that allows me to quickly assess a computer health just by looking at the processes running upon a fresh boot (start) of a computer:

  • 25-34 Processes – Excellent
  • 34-39 Processes – Good
  • 40-44 Processes – OK
  • 45-49 Processes – Fair
  • More than 49 Processes – Poor

The numbers are purely anecdotal based on my experience with thousands of computers. However, they also offer a good way to quickly get a handle on where to start with a computer.

To view which processes are running on your computer (Windows XP or 2000 only), push Ctrl+Alt+Delete on your keyboard OR RIGHT Click on a blank part of your taskbar then click Task Manager. After the Task Manager appears, Click the Processes tab. In the lower left corner of the Processes tab window, the total number of processes will be shown.

Windows Processes

Use my chart to gauge the health of your machine right at startup before you open any programs. If your system has more than 45 processes running at startup, you should search our site for two different terms: Spyware and MSCONFIG . You can use the tips listed under these topics to reduce the number of processes that start automatically with your system. In some cases, you may need to employ the help of an experienced computer professional to help safely reduce the number of processes (thus increasing the health and speed) of your computer.

For those that like to tinker with their computer and want to know what some of the cryptic names you will find in the Process list are, use the following sites to sleuth out the Processes listed in your Task Manager:

Windows Tips — 2 Comments
13
May 06

MSCONFIG: These items are unneccessary

We talk about the Microsoft Configuration Utility (msconfig) so much, that we have a t-shirt available for it in our store. Msconfig is accessed by:

  1. Click Start
  2. Click Run
  3. Type:   msconfig
  4. Click OK

Once in the utility, you want to click the "Startup" tab. Here is a list of some the programs that can be safely unchecked. After doing so, click OK, and restart the computer as instructed and your computer should run just a little better.

  • jusched – Java update utility
  • realsched – RealOne Player update  utility
  • qttask – QuickTime system tray icon
  • realplay – automatically starts RealOne Player
  • Microsoft Office Fast Start – a starter program to help launch Office applications a hair faster
  • Anything Adobe – Adobe Reader is used so seldom, that having it start its utilities every time we start our computer is a waste of precious computing cycles and resources
  • Sonic Update – update utility for Sonic CD burning software
  • Kodak Updater – This update utility from Kodak really eats at performance
  • Music Match or mmplayer – an audio player that has no business starting automatically
  • iTunes Helper – especially if you don’t use an iPod. If you do own an iPod, it isn’t a necessary program to run at startup
  • AOLSP Scheduler – And anything else labeled with AOL…again,  unnecessary to start all this stuff at startup.
  • Microsoft Works Calendar or Update – neither should start at boot up
  • Money Express and/or Agent – related to Microsoft’s Quicken like program "Money"
  • Qagent – Quicken utility
  • Quickbooks Update – Quickbooks updates can be initiated from Help in the Quickbooks program. 
  • Tkbell – related to RealOne player
  • Iomega – related to Iomega external or internal drives and how icons are displayed
  • Reminder – Greeting card programs of various brands. If you don’t use the reminder program, uncheck this box. 

These are the most frequent programs we come across that do NOT need to start automatically. Unchecking the boxes in msconfig has absolutely no effect on running the actual programs. For more information on what the heck is starting up automatically on your computer, check out this easily navigatable list. 

 

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