Having too many programs running on your computer can drain system resources and reduce productivity. There are a few ways to reduce the number of programs that launch at start up. The methods listed here are general and for the most part will work from Windows 98 to Windows Vista. Keep in mind that disabling programs that start with you computer will affect the functionality of your computer. You need to be clear on what programs you use for what as making these changes could affect functionality that you are used to.

The first thing to do is to start the computer and then look in the system tray – that's the area right to the left of your clock. If you see things in there – and you don't know what they are – not to mention there are too many to count, then it may be time to change what launches at startup. Most of the icons there will have a menu accessible from the system try by right clicking on the icon and searching for an 'Options' menu or something similar. Typically you'll be able to find a way to disable the program from automatically starting with Windows. This is different for every program and outside the scope of this discussion. However, by addressing each one of these icons, what the program is, and altering its settings you can prevent many of them from loading at start up.

The next place to look is the folder called 'startup'. This is accessible from your start menu. As you mouse over the folder called 'Startup' it's possible that you will see some icons there. If you right click on these icons, and select delete, they will not be launched at startup any more. Conversely if you'd like something to start that's not here, you can put a shortcut to the program here by dragging the shortcut onto the start menu and releasing the icon when you've got it over the 'Startup' folder.

The next option is a bit trickier and so proceed with caution:

- Click the Start Button

- Select 'Run'

- In the box type 'msconfig' without the quotes

- Click OK

You'll see a panel – click on the tab called 'Startup'. There will be a list of programs here that run at start up. Un-check the ones that you don't want to have run at start up. Please remember that if you don't understand what you're doing, you might affect your computer in a way that you wouldn't expect. That being said, it's very easy to find out what these programs are with a tiny bit of research online. You'll see the names of the programs ending with “.exe” if you do internet searches for all of these you can find out if you really want them running or not. Just click 'OK' when you are done.

At this point, restart the computer and see the results of your labor. These steps should give you some direction to removing a lot of the programs that run at startup and consume system resources. As cautioned above, if you don't know what something is, don't disable it – first find out what it's for, then proceed accordingly.

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