msconfig startup items 1

[daglugub37]

Hi All,

I plan on addressing some long over due cleanup on my xp pc tonight. Basically it has become bloated a bit slow, maybe even some virus deletion.

Basically my plan is this.
1. Run a full virus scan
2. Any virus defintions found look up and perform cleanup steps
3. Reconfigure my Mcafee suite to the least intrusive settings, basically I just want it as a weekly virus scan only, no other services needed
4. Run a spybot scan and remove only Threats that I am confident is not a wanted\needed program. Anything not in RED I will ignore.
5. Any left over programs at this point that I know I don't want I will just attempt Add\Remove Program
6. Last - and where my question comes in, I will use msconfig to disable any startup items that I feel don't need to be running on their own. But I am afraid I may diable something critical here.

Does anyone know how I can identify startup items that should be left enabled either for windows or core applications like...Office or IE for example??

 

[Beowulf005]

Do a google search on the exe file name and you will see what that file would be needed for.

When frustrated remember, in the computer world there is almost always a backdoor.

 

[wolluf]

There's nothing 'critical' in the startup list in msconfig - but there are items you obviously want to leave in (like anti-virus). You can disable all, and machine will run fine - so suggest some experimentation perhaps. I like to keep them to a minimum (eg, stuff like quicktime, itunes, Office, messenger and many more put items in the startup list which are just not necessary. Any app that you just use on demand should NEVER be in that list). You might like to look at an app called autoruns (google for it) to use instead of msconfig.

You don't mention your spec - but would note that McAfee - like Norton - is a total resource hog. If you have only 256MB RAM, consider increasing RAM (you should anyway if this is the case) or ditching McAfee. I use AVG free anti-virus, XP's own firewall and MS Windows Defender (for spyware - with spybot & adaware as 'backup' - see later note) and don't have problems.

There are no anti-spyware apps that catch it all - in my experience - so would suggest scanning with several - eg, as well as spybot, adaware, AVG and windows defender (use the full scan, the quick one misses stuff). Defender also gives realtime protection

 

[daglugub37]

thanks all.

I will search processes via google but also armed with the knowledge that nothing really critical is listed in startup I will lean more towards disabling unknown items.

In regards to McAfee(maybe all Virus suites). First I am going to stick with it for now as I only recently paid for it. But I do understand that it is a resource hog and can very intrusive. In many ways the program causes me more grief than most relatively harmless rogue programs do.

I am going to try to disable everything but it's core purposes being scheduled scans, auto-protect, email attachment scanning.

Would I be too risky if I disabled the auto-protect and email (I always shift+delete unknown attachments anyway). Will McAfee even let me turn that off. I guess all I really want is to let it auto-update maybe on a monthly basis and auto-scan all files on a weekly basis

 

[wolluf]

My view of AV apps is - make sure machine is clean and then let them keep stuff off - ie, you don't need to keep scanning machine after initial scan, because realtime protection should catch anything. I doubt you can permanently stop Mcafee scanning without uninstalling it - but why would you want to? Realtime protection is best (if you don't have this, virus can cause untold damage BEFORE you find it).

If McAfee is too intrusive - never mind that you've paid for it, if its not fit for use, you have a free alternative (AVG - or Avast - also good).

I would never have McAfee or Norton Internet Security/AV running on any of my machines (unless in future they finally address the issues that have dogged them since I can remember - certainly they were causing problems on coroporate PCs I used in the early/mid nineties).

 

[linney]

This may be helpful in deciding between good and bad programs.

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