Delete shit running/loading in background?

[magentaplacenta]

Is there any way to find out what all is running/loading up upon PC startup?  I mean more than the task manager.  I'm running XP Pro and it seems it takes a little longer for all my apps to launch when I first fire them up....I'm guessing other stuff is loading up, supposedly making them "faster" when I choose to launch them.  I basically want to delete any of the load up shit I don't use that often.

Looking to streamline.

[MrX]

if you want something fast, get BeOS. BeOS Max v3.1 came out a while ago too.
go see what i wrote har:
http://www.5starsupport.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=37

Mr X

[JanusChrist]

Click Start, select Run, type "msconfig"

[NegStar]

Hi MagentaPlacenta,  :o

You have to examine all the windows startup locations to see where the programs are being launched from. Specifically, you must look at:

1. win.ini, and system.ini - Check for win.ini's Run= and load= lines. Also check system.ini's Shell=Explorer.exe to see if any trojan executable follows the explorere.exe reference.

2. Windows Services - start-run-type in "services.msc" or Click Start, Settings, Control Panel.
Open the Administrative Tools and click Services.

3. The windows registry run keys:
# Click Start, Run, and type regedit and press enter.
# Click HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
# Click Software
# Click Microsoft
# Click Windows
# Click Current Version
# Click Run
Also inspect the runonce and runservices keys

4. The windows startup folders:
The Autostart folder is located in C:\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\startup

5. Downloaded programs (Active-X locations)

To complicate matters, some malware processes may hide behind and be launched by the valid system svchost process, which you may see multiple occurrences of in task mgr.. This makes their identification and removal more difficult:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/svchost.htm

If you Download and install WinPatrol, You can click on services to see what is running behind each occurrence of  svchost.  You can also manage your startups by clicking on startups, and 'active tasks' will be you active list of running processes, similar to what you would see if you openned task Mgr.
http://www.winpatrol.com

[pulsechild]

HiJackThis will come in handy, too. I know it doesn't show you things at startup, but it DOES give you more info then msconfig or services.msc will.

You can also right-click on My Computer. Properties >> Advanced >> Performance. You can turn off all of the bullshit "look its got a shadow w00t" crap. Those are RAM hogs.

[Calum]

here's a little document about running things on startup:
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/ref-guide/s1-boot-init-shutdown-sysv.html

[NiMd4]

also have a look at this, it's kickass..
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/procexp.shtml

but maybe have a look at this b4 you use it but it's just some retards ;)
http://weblogs.asp.net/gad/archive/2003/10/19/32555.aspx

good luck :)

[Aloone_Jonez]

Wow I didn't know this was a Windows support forum!

[Orethrius]

Wow I didn't know this was an arrogant post!

Fixed.  We're supposed to be better than the WinBBS dogs, remember?  

[Aloone_Jonez]

So what do we do with Windows support threads?

EDIT: I hope I've not violated the ELUA by using the Windows Recycle Bin icon in this way! :p

[verwijderd door de beheerder]

[Calum]

actually i think you probably have!

in my opinion windows support threads should be answered intelligently with suggestions for how easy it would be to do the same thing under a more sensible and mature operating system, but some people might prefer to redirect the enquirer to the windowsbbs.com even though that site sucks and is run by blinkered morons who have been known to prune posts and ban IP addresses simply for using the word "linux".

[Fett101]

For an interesting contrast. What would you do in Linux to acomplish the same thing?

[Calum]

it depends which linux based system you are running. for red hat, see the link i posted above.

with linux systems, many distributions have different things that are set to run when the system boots, and more things that are set to run or not run at each runlevel. different runlevels are for different purposes, for example, runlevel two is usually multi-user but no networking, so typically none of the networking stuff'd be brought up if you booted into that runlevel, runlevel 3 is everything (including networking) and runlevel 4 or 5 is usually everything, plus a graphical user interface (it's runlevel 5 on mandrake, suse, red hat etc, and runlevel 4 on slackware for example). runlevel 6 is reboot, runlevel 0 is shutdown and runlevel 1 is single user, in case you're interested. you could add all the networking stuff to runlevel 2's startup scripts, but why bother? it's a nice working model as it is. when the computer starts up, the script /etc/inittab calls the relevant scripts for that runlevel and runs them. This loads all the kernel modules, services and whatever you want that you have (or your linux distributor has) specified to run under that runlevel.

now, different systems handle the actual startup scripts under each runlevel quite differently. on red hat, mandrake, suse and all (generally the red hat branch of linuces) they use the sysv init process, so called because it is the method used in AT&T's System V Unix. Basically there's a directory at /etc/rc.d/ which contains a subdirectory for each runlevel (called /etc/rc3.d and so on, or something like it) and upon starting in a particular runlevel, the system goes and runs all the scripts in that directory that are set to be executable. Each service that could start under that runlevel has its own startup script. So to switch something off (that you don't want to start at boot time) you just go to the directory for that runlevel and do "chmod -x ", this way you don't need to edit anything, you just switch the executable bit on or off for each service.

At the moment i am using slackware. it is a little different (though not much) in that it uses the BSD style init (so called because it's the system that Berkeley's Unix clone was using at about the time that System V came out). Slackware and its derivatives, as well as the three BSD derivatives are the only distributions that i know of that still use this method. It's the same, except that instead of a directory full of scripts for each runlevel, there's just one script for each runlevel, and to switch a service on or off for that runlevel, you have to edit the script yourself. Usually there are entries in those scripts for things you're going to want, so it's just a matter of commenting out things you want switched off, or uncommenting things you want switched on. Or if there's not an entry there already you can just add one, and type out all the commands you want to be executed next time that runlevel is started.

With many systems, there's a nice easy GUI tool to do this all for you. In Red Hat it's somewhere in your red hat start menu (and it's called SysV Init Editor or something equally imaginative), and i am sure mandrake and SUSE have something similar. Xandros (which is debian based, and uses some variant of the SysV method that i haven't quite figured out yet) has a simplified GUI for this in kcontrol (the KDE Control Center) so it'd be worth cheking there out on other distros if you want a nice GUI to do this for you. And all these GUIs are of course free. I doubt you'll find a piece of freeware to do this for you under windows (especially one that won't mess your registry up while doing so).

This sysv/bsd init stuff may all look terribly confusing but it's not once you get used to it (the same as anything in linux, taken from a windows user's perspective, i mean look at the windows registry, how confusing is that to somebody that's never heard of it before? *), and this system means that even if something like realplayer or whatever you install does set itself to start at boot time, you can easily go and sort it out yourself. instead of hundreds of pages of meaningless registry keys, you are faced with half a dozen directories, each containing maybe two or three dozen scripts, that you can switch on or off with a simple two word command (or in the case of a BSD style init, you just edit one of the scripts in /etc/rc.d they are all sensibly named and there are about 15 of them in total, so it's not hard). So once you know these basic facts, you're set to "delete shit running/loading in the background" in seconds. with one hand. you could just about do it in your sleep. and it requires no additional software either.

Sorry for the long answer, hope this answers your question...





* - very. and unnecessarily so, too.

[JanusChrist]

Sometimes having Windows on your computer is like having a small penis: It sucks but there isn't much you can do about it.

[Calum]

if you say so. i think it's more like having a stone in your shoe. you can get rid of it, and you know your life will be hell until you do, but you can't be assed to undo your laces, so instead you just hope it'll work its way round to the toe end where you can't feel it for a while.