Computer Question-Start Up Menu

[Glynda]

My Dell desk top computer takes so very long to start up. I'm sure that I must have unnecessary things on the tool bar and start-up menu.

It is also taking a long time to do most things these days and often doesn't respond when I try to shut it down or do a restart.

When I click on run, mscofig, and the start up tab, I recognize very little and am afraid to mess with it.

On my lower right tool bar I have the following icons showing:

Quick Time
NVIDIA Settings
Dell Support
Robo Form (I enter contests and shop online)
Creative Diagnostics Agent
San Disk TransferMate monitor
Safely Remove Hardware
Audible Download Manager
Volume
Palm HotSync
McAfee Security Center
AOL

I do hot sync my Palm Treo and download to my iPod frequently. I use AOL for the most part.

Is there anything there that I should remove? Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to decipher the msconfig startup list in order to remove some?

Thanks!

 

[Kal]

If it were me, I would remove these items from msconfig, the startup menu or the individual program configuration:

Quick Time (definitely)
NVIDIA Settings (maybe)
Dell Support (definitely)
Robo Form (probably)
Creative Diagnostics Agent (definitely)
San Disk TransferMate monitor (very likely)
Safely Remove Hardware (not sure)
Audible Download Manager (definitely)
Palm HotSync (likely)
AOL (definitely)

Not only will your startup be faster, but the computer response will be much better. You just don't need to have all that stuff running all the time.

 

[Don]

I had the same problem with my old computer. It was the McAfee Virus scanner going into overdrive. The part of it called Instashield(?) that checks the programs as you open them was taking up so much processor time, I couldn't even get enough time in to double click an icon. I turned off the Instashield and everything worked normally again. When you turn it off, you still have email and downloading protection, you just do not check the programs when you open them.

 

[Glynda]

Unfortunately...

...I don't recognize those once I get into msconfig startup! AOL and another with a Dell file extension are the only recognizable to me.

Looked all over McAfee and don't see that either.

 

[Courts]

...I don't recognize those once I get into msconfig startup! AOL and another with a Dell file extension are the only recognizable to me.

Looked all over McAfee and don't see that either.

I agree with KAl on the "definately" entries. They are not necessary in startup.

You could put them in the "quick launch" bar on the bottom left.

I switched to Norton for the same reason given. I'm sure McAfee is a good program, but it does seem to take a lot of processor time.

Do you run "defrag" on a regular basis?

 

[Glynda]

start up

I do defrag regularly.

Put them in the quick launch bar on the left? I'm clueless, as usual.

 

[Courts]

I do defrag regularly.

Put them in the quick launch bar on the left? I'm clueless, as usual.

Just to the right of the "start" button you may see some icons. This is the "quick launch bar" so called because it takes one click to launch them. Not necessary, just a thought.

 

[Glynda]

Quick Launch

OK. Do I just drag and drop them there?

 

[Fern Modena]

Glynda,
If you want to use RoboForm you need to keep it in your startup. The people who are telling you to remove it don't use it and don't understand how it works. If you use it regularly, you need to have it run on startup. I use mine for *everything*.

Fern

 

[Ahzroe]

My Dell desk top computer takes so very long to start up. I'm sure that I must have unnecessary things on the tool bar and start-up menu.

It is also taking a long time to do most things these days and often doesn't respond when I try to shut it down or do a restart.

When I click on run, mscofig, and the start up tab, I recognize very little and am afraid to mess with it.

On my lower right tool bar I have the following icons showing:

Quick Time
NVIDIA Settings
Dell Support
Robo Form (I enter contests and shop online)
Creative Diagnostics Agent
San Disk TransferMate monitor
Safely Remove Hardware
Audible Download Manager
Volume
Palm HotSync
McAfee Security Center
AOL

I do hot sync my Palm Treo and download to my iPod frequently. I use AOL for the most part.

Is there anything there that I should remove? Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to decipher the msconfig startup list in order to remove some?

Thanks!

Google up "Dell De Crapifier"

This should help clean some things up.

http://www.yorkspace.com/pc-de-crapifier/

 

[Courts]

OK. Do I just drag and drop them there?

Yes, just drag and drop.

 

[Courts]

Glynda,
If you want to use RoboForm you need to keep it in your startup. The people who are telling you to remove it don't use it and don't understand how it works. If you use it regularly, you need to have it run on startup. I use mine for *everything*.

Fern

If your computer is running slow, you need to make tradeoffs.

I have only absolute necessary progs in my startup such as, Anti-virus, firewall, and scheduler, and system restore.

 

[Glynda]

Removals

I didn't think Roboform would work if I removed it, Fern. I use it all the time too. Thanks for the confirmation.

I'm not going to remove the hot sync for my Treo either and am not sure about the Audible download manager. I don't know what NVIDIA is but it sounds ominous enough for me to hesitate. I was able to detect some of the others in the msconfig startup list and unchecked them and rebooted. Still slow as molasses. Dragging and dropping from the right toolbar to right of startup didn't seem to work.

"Dell De Crapifier" how appropriate!

 

[Kal]

How much RAM memory do you have on the machine? How full is the hard drive?

NVIDIA is the graphics display menu.

 

[Icarus]

Don't drag and drop them anywhere. Simply uncheck the ones you don't want started in msconfig/startup. Then if you have a problem you can just run msconfig again, and recheck an item you disabled. You don't need to have programs automatically started for you if you can start them manually when you need them. Many programs suffer from the "center of the universe" phenomena and install themselves so that they start the program at startup time. The key to a quick startup and a responsive computer is to only run the programs you actually need.

That said, many of the programs you listed have their own methods for getting rid of the taskbar item. For example, in quicktime, use the program itself to disable the startup item and the taskbar icon. You don't need it started for you. Quicktime will start when it's needed. Same for AOL and many of the other things Kal commented on in earlier in this thread, but you may have to use the program itself to get rid of the startup options to prevent them from returning. You don't need to worry about or do anything with "safely remove hardware". Just leave that one alone. My taskbar has AVG, firewall, battery indicator, safely remove hardware, volume, network and the clock.

Unfortunately, you can't resize the window that msconfig runs in, but you can slide the columns left and right if you're not sure what the items are. Post them here if you have any questions.

Try that, and if your system is still sluggish we can take a look at the services you are running. How much memory do you have on this system?

-David

 

[Glynda]

It is a....

Dell Dimension 8300 Intel (R)
Pentium (R)
4CPU
2.60 GHz
2.59 GHZ 1.00 GB RAM

Drive C: Total Size: 74.4 GB Free Space: 45.4 GB

It ought not to be this slow. The failure to reboot, shut down, or to shut down slowly is as annoying as how slow it is to start up.

I know you folks hate AOL but I've been on there for 12 years and have a "family" and "home" there. There are numerous AOL items on the mscofig startup! I'll try unchecking and see what happens.

 

[Glynda]

msconfig startup list

You folks are the greatest!

Let's see if I can list all that are checked in msconfig startup list:

UpdReg C:\WINDOWS\updRe...

NWIZ NWIZ.exe/install

NvCpl RUNDLL32EXE C:\WI

DSentry C:\WINDOWS\System

BCMSMMSG BCMSMMSG.exe

EngUtil "C:\ProgramFiles\Com...

AOLHostManager C:\ProgramFiles\Com...

Port AOL

AOL Dial

PDUiP6600DMon C:\ProgramFiles\Cano...

realsched C:\ ProgramFiles\com...

jusched C:\ProgramFiles\Jav...

SiteAdv C:\ProgramFiles\SiteA...

iTunes Helper C:\Programfiles\iTun...

AOL SP Scheduler

NVMCTray RunDLL32.EXEC:\WI...

MSMSGS C:\ProgramFiles\Mes...

ctfmon C:\WINDOWS\system...

Robotaskbaricon

DSAgnt C:\ProgramFiles\Dell...

AOL C:\ProgramFiles\Ame...

AdobeGammaLoa C:\ProgramFiles~1\COMM... Common Startup

AdobeGammaLoader C:\ProgramFiles~1\COMM... Common Startup

Adobe Reader Spe C:\PROG ~1\Adobe... Common Startup

AOL COMPANION Common Startup

Audible Download Common Startup

DataVizIncMessen Common Startup

HotSyncShortC Palm Common Startup


THEN there are the ones that AREN'T checked.

 

[Kal]

You didn't provide the full link on many of the items, so I can't tell if they are useful. However, you can easily uncheck about 80-90% of the items listed. With all this stuff you're machine will really be a dog unless you've got the RAM and processor to match the load. Six items for AOL alone is crazy when you don't need any of them.

 

[Icarus]

In msconfig/startup, you can slide the column heading of the last column over to the right and then you'll see the full pathnames of those files, then repost them.

You can also look these programs up on this web site to see what they are and if you need them:

http://www.sysinfo.org/startupinfo.html

-David

 

[Fern Modena]

At the least, you can uncheck all the AOL, Adobe, and Itunes items on the Startup. All of these programs can be started as you need without being there. That will remove close to ten items...

Fern

 

[Glynda]

startup

I did as Fern said, and unchecked all the AOL, Adobe and iPod.

Oh, I see now how to slide it and see all of the middle column...
Whew! What a chore. I think I'll look at that web site for now. I may be back with the extensions later if I don't understand which is likely as I think I've seen it before.

The last column for all but those that read "Common Startup" either reads "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Current Ver...
or HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Current Ver...


Thanks!

 

[nicklinneh]

http//:www.pacs-portal.co.uk/
the expert on startup lists.
ken

 

[Glynda]

Removed

Using the http://www.sysinfo.org/startupinfo.html site, I removed many of them. In fact there was only one in my list, BCMSMMSG that it said to definitely leave. However, I can't say that it shuts down or restarts much faster. Sigh.Some came back.

One of the AOL did: C:\ProgramFiles\Americaonline9.0b\AOL.EXE"-b

Two, that worry me came back as the site said they might be a trojan or worm:

ctfmon C:\WINDOWS\system\32\ctfmon.exe (may also be Windows Office)

and

NvCpl RUNDLL32.EXE C:\WINDOWS\system32\NvCpl.dll,NvStartup

Those that I could not find in the list are:

PDUiP6600DMon CrogramFiles\CanonMemoryCardUtility\iP6600D\PDU6600DMon.exe (I have a Canon digital camera but use a SanDisk card reader, not the camera itself)


NVMCTray RUNDLL32.EXE C:\WINDOWS\System32\NVMCTRAY.Dll,NvTaskbarInit

SiteAdv CrogramFiles\SiteAdvisor\6009\SiteAdv.exe

 

[Courts]

Using the http://www.sysinfo.org/startupinfo.html site, I removed many of them. In fact there was only one in my list, BCMSMMSG that it said to definitely leave. However, I can't say that it shuts down or restarts much faster. Sigh.Some came back.

One of the AOL did: C:\ProgramFiles\Americaonline9.0b\AOL.EXE"-b

Two, that worry me came back as the site said they might be a trojan or worm:

ctfmon C:\WINDOWS\system\32\ctfmon.exe (may also be Windows Office)

and

NvCpl RUNDLL32.EXE C:\WINDOWS\system32\NvCpl.dll,NvStartup

Those that I could not find in the list are:

PDUiP6600DMon CrogramFiles\CanonMemoryCardUtility\iP6600D\PDU6600DMon.exe (I have a Canon digital camera but use a SanDisk card reader, not the camera itself)


NVMCTray RUNDLL32.EXE C:\WINDOWS\System32\NVMCTRAY.Dll,NvTaskbarInit

SiteAdv CrogramFiles\SiteAdvisor\6009\SiteAdv.exe

Rather than give my opinion on the questions you asked, I have provided links for more info.
To see information on those files that may be or can be compromised by a virus here is a link,
http://www.symantec.com/index.htm
http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoffice/security_response/index.jsp
http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoffice/security_response/threatexplorer/index.jsp

Regular updates for your anti-virus is very important. If you have not already done so, a spyware program is good to have. Whatever spyware/adware program you use, understand that no one spyware/adware program will catch all.
A free program I use (along with other purchased programs) is; http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad-aware_se_personal.php
Yes computers can be a pain, but very important as well. Good luck.


Your entry = NvCpl RUNDLL32.EXE C:\WINDOWS\system32\NvCpl.dll,NvStartup
Information on = http://www.windowsstartup.com/wso/detail.php?id=3877
Edit to provide better link

Your entry = ctfmon C:\WINDOWS\system\32\ctfmon.exe (may also be Windows Office)
Information on = http://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/process/ctfmon.exe.html
Also - http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=282599
Under this link see "Can I Remove the Ctfmon.exe File?"

Your entry = PDUiP6600DMon CrogramFiles\CanonMemoryCardUtility\iP6600D\PDU: P6600DMon.exe (I have a Canon digital camera but use a SanDisk card reader, not the camera itself)
Information on = I can not find specific info on this but appears to be associated with your card reader.

Your entry = NVMCTray RUNDLL32.EXE C:\WINDOWS\System32\NVMCTRAY.Dll,NvTaskbarInit
Information on = http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/dlllibrary/nvmctray/

Your entry = SiteAdv CrogramFiles\SiteAdvisor\6009\SiteAdv.exe
Information on = http://www.fbmsoftware.com/spyware-net/process/SiteAdv_exe/3195/


.

 

[Glynda]

I just love you folks!

Thanks! I run AdAware or SpyBot every other day, along with AOL's spyware which runs automatically and is probably a joke. I update and scan McAfee automatically.

So, of those I didn't find, one is either my Canon Camera, or as I remembered, my Canon printer more likely as it has a card reader.

Another is NVIDIA (as it appears is the NvCpl I was worried about which is found where the site said it should be in order not to be a virus). Reads like it needs to stay.

Then there is a McAfee Site Advisor.

I'm worried about the ctfmon.exe as this one is beyond me, is mentioned as a possible trojan/worm and some of the problems it causes, I'm experiencing.

I did a files and folders search and it came up four ways:

ctfmon.exe C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 (this is where the sites say the legitimate one is to be found)

but it is also found in these:

C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackfiles\i386

C:\WINDOWS\$NTServicePackUninstall$

C:\I386