annoyed with "startup" programs/processes

Priscilla_Anne · 08-17-2008, 09:41 AM

I love this very wonderful web site! So well organized,
and so much great help available here.

There are several icons that appear next to the clock at the right end of the task bar every time I boot my old win 2000 pro, 450MHz computer. I close these out every time I boot up. I know these can supposedly be kept from starting up by going to start--> taskbar / start menu---> advanced tab --->advanced button ---> programs --> startup. (or something "very simple" like that); and then deleting the shortcuts to the programs I do not want every reboot. However, the programs I want to deal with do not show up there. It's like I am looking at a completely false list! Once again I feel like Bill Gates is making my decisions for me and only pretending to placate me by giving me this fake startup menu to play with, while in fact it does little or nothing.

Some of the one's I would like NOT to see next to the clock when I boot up are the icon/shortcut to the printer; the one to eBAY; and the one to the sound mixer controls.

In the "old days" of win 98 and maybe back as far as win3.11 many programs whose icons showed up down there when booting up had a
"right-click on icon---> properties--->preferences
where a check box could be found saying "display icon in taskbar (or whatever the name of that group next to the clock is). But I cannot find such preference boxes for the programs I am talking about.

And there are other things that load up into RAM while booting that might be even more problematic, in that they might be tying up system resources. There is a Wacom tablet that I no longer use or have plugged into the computer, yet while booting up I see a message flash by saying something about that tablet. And in windows task manager I see it listed among the "processes" as "tablet.exe" - at least I think that is the wacom tablet. I know I should just uninstall that program but what if there are other such things going on that I don't even know about?

Help! Where can these kinds of settings be changed?

Stu_computer · 08-17-2008, 10:04 PM

this handy little program lets you disable startups-and it has a whole lot of other features too...

http://www.winpatrol.com/

Priscilla_Anne · 08-18-2008, 12:08 AM

Thank you!
I have been out of the technology loop for about 5 years and have not been keeping up with utilities like this.
This looks good.

I downloaded and installed it and I see that it is detecting the mixer and printer and other things as being in startup. I have disabled them now and we'll see how things go when I reboot.

08-17-2008, 09:41 AM	#1 (permalink)
Priscilla_Anne Registered User Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 83 OS: Win 2000 / XP	annoyed with "startup" programs/processes I love this very wonderful web site! So well organized, and so much great help available here. There are several icons that appear next to the clock at the right end of the task bar every time I boot my old win 2000 pro, 450MHz computer. I close these out every time I boot up. I know these can supposedly be kept from starting up by going to start--> taskbar / start menu---> advanced tab --->advanced button ---> programs --> startup. (or something "very simple" like that); and then deleting the shortcuts to the programs I do not want every reboot. However, the programs I want to deal with do not show up there. It's like I am looking at a completely false list! Once again I feel like Bill Gates is making my decisions for me and only pretending to placate me by giving me this fake startup menu to play with, while in fact it does little or nothing. Some of the one's I would like NOT to see next to the clock when I boot up are the icon/shortcut to the printer; the one to eBAY; and the one to the sound mixer controls. In the "old days" of win 98 and maybe back as far as win3.11 many programs whose icons showed up down there when booting up had a "right-click on icon---> properties--->preferences where a check box could be found saying "display icon in taskbar (or whatever the name of that group next to the clock is). But I cannot find such preference boxes for the programs I am talking about. And there are other things that load up into RAM while booting that might be even more problematic, in that they might be tying up system resources. There is a Wacom tablet that I no longer use or have plugged into the computer, yet while booting up I see a message flash by saying something about that tablet. And in windows task manager I see it listed among the "processes" as "tablet.exe" - at least I think that is the wacom tablet. I know I should just uninstall that program but what if there are other such things going on that I don't even know about? Help! Where can these kinds of settings be changed?

08-17-2008, 10:04 PM	#2 (permalink)
Stu_computer Tech Hardware Team Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 1,460 OS: Windows	Re: annoyed with "startup" programs/processes this handy little program lets you disable startups-and it has a whole lot of other features too... http://www.winpatrol.com/

08-18-2008, 12:08 AM	#3 (permalink)
Priscilla_Anne Registered User Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 83 OS: Win 2000 / XP	Re: annoyed with "startup" programs/processes Thank you! I have been out of the technology loop for about 5 years and have not been keeping up with utilities like this. This looks good. I downloaded and installed it and I see that it is detecting the mixer and printer and other things as being in startup. I have disabled them now and we'll see how things go when I reboot.