How to Remove Programs from Windows Startup?

Ever wondered why it takes so long to boot up you PC, even a new one. Most computers come with many applications pre-installed to which are enabled to run whenever the PC boots up, this causes delay in boot up time. Whenever you install applications on your computer it’s the same thing. You might not want these applications to run at all times in the background as they tend to consume more processor speed which causes your PC to run slow. You can try this quick trick to help you disable these files in windows startup.


Click {Win+R}. If you don’t know where the WIN key is, it is the one with WIN Logo on the last row of your keyboard. Else Click ‘Start’ then ‘Run’ (if you are on Vista there is no ‘Run’ option, you can type in search.)
In the space type in ‘msconfig’ then ’OK’.



Click on the ‘Startup’ tab
In the Check Box click what you don’t need
Click ‘Apply’ then ‘Ok’




You will need to reboot your PC for this to work, removing unwanted startup files will help your PC boot faster.

Slow PC- Have you seen this happen to your PC?

What defines a Slow PC? I boot up my PC, open internet explorer and connect to the internet .To do these steps about 10 years ago on WIN 98 it used to take me about 15 min or more. It takes about less than 5 minutes today, so the questions I ask myself are ‘is the computer really slow’ or ‘do we have less patience now.’ Well the answer to the question is - it’s both.

Computers are becoming much faster but the applications used on them are becoming much bigger and more complicated. My patience as well is little because my computer out of the box runs fine but 8 months later its worse, which really gets me frustrated as I expect it to run like new every day. However it won’t because I have had many movies, games, mp3 and dozen other applications installed over the last 8 months. So should I stop downloading these application, if so what is the point of having a nice computer. What really causes computers to run slow, listed below are some of the main reasons I came across.

RAM (Random Access Memory) Space- The computer was probably provided with enough memory when you purchased it some time ago but with new applications especially large ones being installed it needs more RAM space. To perform better an upgrade is suggestible, anything less than 1 GB RAM is history.

Operating System (OS) like Windows when upgraded are much more advanced and larger than their previous version as they tend be very latest and some functions might be not be better suited for your old pc configuration. Point being upgrading OS might not always be the solution to a faster performing PC, it depends on what suits better to your PC hardware configuration.

Viruses are one of the most well known reasons. There is no good virus; they are all bad because they affect your computer without your knowledge. They tend to multiply themselves and often cause computers to crash, worse being that there is a possibility of data loss. They are even more dangerous when you are on a network as they sometimes use it to bypass security and even send malicious emails on your behalf. Use of good antivirus softwares and correct firewall settings might help prevent viruses.

Adwares are malicious softwares and often come as part of other applications, most times hidden. It causes pop-ups and unwanted advertising that harms your computers in more than one way. You can read my article on adware for more info here.

Slow start up speed of your OS can be very painful, you can avoid this by deleting unwanted programs from your startup file. This should help unwanted applications to run in the background and use your processor speed. Click here for an easy way to do this.

A very important point to remember is that whenever you install any application they tend to write some data into your computer’s registry. Every time you surf the internet there is data written to your temp files which overtime becomes quite large taking more space and may cause issues.

Uninstalling applications may leave behind corrupt/damaged files and might not get deleted completely from the registry causing more problems. Fixing problems with your windows registry is not easy and a registry cleaner might come in handy as they scan and clean files easily. They tend to fix most of the problems for a slow pc and it’s a nice idea to run them once every few months. You can read some registry cleaners reviews on my website.

Although there are many more known reasons for computers to perform slowly, I have tried to address few of the most common reasons and quick solutions to fix them.

Godspeed!

Reimage Reviewed

Reimage©, is it just another win XP registry cleaner? Can it really clean you DLL files and fix your slow pc problems. Let’s see!

Who are they? : Reimage has been around since 2007 with HQs in Israel and New York. Reimage provides the leading automated PC repair software. They have a good presence in the market for such a young company.

Software description: Reimage – PC Repair software, as mentioned in their site has “exclusive access to a dynamically updated web repository of fresh system components – used as “spare” parts for the repair. No other PC repair/registry repair software on the market offers this.” Currently version 1.3.3.4 is being tested.

Compatibility: It is only available for repairing Windows-based XP operating systems (English, Spanish and French editions, Home and Pro) at this point. Minimum of 394MB of RAM on the PC under repair and a high speed internet access required.

Website: It is a very well designed website; menu options are easy to navigate. They have FAQs, Knowledge base, Company details etc.

Download: It was fast and it took less than 45 seconds to download. I have a 3.5 Mbps download speed.

Installation/Scan:

Attempt 1: Installation took about 30 seconds. The software started to scan my PC, waited again and in less than a minute there was an Error – “Reimage cannot scan as OS not supported”. The problem was the Vista OS running on my Acer laptop.

Attempt 2: I tried again, this time on my Dell Latitude 6350 with Win XP with a lot of junk softwares installed on it. Error once again – “Your OS is corrupted and cannot be fixed by Reimage”. What the Heck!! I am still working on this error, will post once I figure it out with customer support.

Attempt 3: Now I wasn’t going to give up easily so I looked for another computer. This time I used my Sony Vaio with Win XP which is really old with more junk on it than you can imagine. In fact, this is the slowest PC I own. I was able to install the software fast with no problems and it scanned my PC in about 8-10 min.

Errors Found: It gives a detailed description of your PC hardware, RAM, paging file size etc; but what I like is that it compares your PC data with the world average & recommended settings in nice graphical display. I think they are trying to make it look fancy but either way it has some useful data. It checks the hardware, CPU, temperature etc with displays. It then scans further to the real problems looking into the registry and gives a nice analysis of all the malicious files, system corrupt files, application errors found. It picked up all the bad files like a.exe, av360.exe, Msblast.exe which is good.

There is a complete PC analysis report towards the end while suggesting what files can be repaired without any data damage. You get a good understanding of the PC performance compared to good PC. At this point it suggests entering the key or option to purchase the software. Please note that till this point it is FREE but to fix my errors I needed to purchase “Reimage” which I go ahead and do.

Order/Purchase: This was quick taking about 2 min, opens browser and displays steps which are easy to follow.

Payment method: Payments can be made through PayPal, most credit cards etc. I like PayPal!

Cost: $65 / use, but they do bundles of three, five or unlimited repairs which I think is good for small companies or enterprises. The good thing is that they have a 100% Money Back Guarantee on all purchases! So I know my money goes nowhere if I don’t like it.

Execution/Repair: Once I entered the scan, the key progress bar appears and says ‘repair can take up to an hour to complete.’ and it starts to download “spare parts”. I guess it is certain DLL files needed to replace the damaged ones; it went ahead and downloaded some in compressed file format. Once it starts to restore these files it takes time. I also noticed that it slowed down my PC giving my CPU a full throttle while the hard disk screamed! Took a while but it was finally done requiring a reboot towards the end. They have an amazing UNDO button to restore previous settings, cool in case I feel that something’s not right after the scan.

Post Scan Review: I tried the scan once again with reimage and was glad to see that exe files had disappeared and I liked the speed as well. Ran some other scan software’s that I had and they pretty much didn’t find anything.

Customer Support: Well after I got my error for my Dell PC I sent an email to support@reimage.com got emailed back a confirmation, no reply yet as of posting this blog. I will update as soon as I hear back something, I think their FAQ and Knowledge Base on the website is quite elaborate to answer many questions.

Rating’s by other sources: I have found mixed reviews on this product, but I think most of the reviews in PCMAG, PC World are based on the older version, not the on the new version 1.3.3.4. I found many articles when I Google Reimage, but they are mostly directed to the sales pages. I couldn’t find any documentation which showed that it had been tested on PCs with issues. So I did some more digging and found some articles on the new version which seem quite nice. All in all it’s a 4/5 according to many articles. I don’t see the need the list all of them here however if you wish please Google and check.

My Overall review: Well to begin with they do seem to have some patents in their pockets as per their website. They are patented for replacing of damaged/corrupted web repository files without loss of data is my guess. They do fix numerous windows problems like slower performance after long usage, booting problems and appearing BSOD, DLL or registry failures. I have had to reimage my windows many times over the years but unfortunately always lost some data in the process but this solution is good. If you have PC is running slow and is having a near dead OS performance. You can save the time to reimage the OS; they do have bootcd option on their website which allows you to reimage from Bios, quite cool!

Should you have problem running a free scan once downloaded, don’t bother with this software, move on to the next software to try as your time is not worth try troubleshooting it. In my personal opinion after trying on 3 computers, don’t purchase it until you are able to successfully run the free scan. After a successful scan the software does seem to offer exactly what it says but I would have been happier with more information on the scan (meaning more technical information). I like to read that information but for those who are not into the technical bits this software is a good choice.

I would give it 4/5 ****

Pros: Fast, Excellent for Win DLL issues, spyware, ad ware, Virus, Trojan. ALL in one justifies the Price.

Cons: No VISTA version available yet ;-(, Documentation is OK not excellent.

Download: You can click here to get the Free Scan or check their website.

What I did not know about Ad ware.

When most of us started using a computer, it had a black and white monitor. Programming languages such as BASIC and LOGO existed.

The advent of the internet brought about the biggest advertising space that ever existed. Examples of online advertising include contextual ads on search engine results pages, banner ads, online classified advertising, advertising networks and e-mail marketing, including e-mail spam.

Along with the joys of the limitless boundaries of online advertising came Ad ware or advertising – supported software. This software automatically plays, shows, and always downloads adverts to a computer after the software is installed on the computer or as it is being used.

Although most people try and avoid downloading from unknown sources or sites, the most common sources of Ad ware are

• Advanced search engines
• Instant news and weather updates
• Computer games
• Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing programs
• Fun mouse pointers, desktop themes and backgrounds
• Emoticons and smileys used in emails

Ad wares piggy-back on these sources and once downloaded onto your PC they run in the background constantly creating advertisements. Some Ad wares are harmless which will close upon clicking OK or cancel while malicious Ad wares are those which a user needs to be aware of.

Malicious ad wares can:

• Breach security: It exploits various holes in the security and can automatically add new programs without the users’ knowledge.

• Violate your privacy as it constantly monitors and collects information about you that is not related to any customer preferences and these details can be sold to a third party.

• Weakens your PC by slowing it down with the various programs it is running in the background even when you ajavascript:void(0)re not using your computer
Most users do not realise that malicious Ad wares run on a PC until they an Ad ware cleaning software.

You can try this free scan if you would like to clean your PC of malicious Ad wares.


Admin

Thank You For Visiting Our Site!

I shall be posting tips and tricks that I have picked up over the years working in the IT industry.

Keep an eye out for this space!

Thanks again.
Admin