Windows without the crap.
Did somebody install a bunch of crap on your computer? The wonderful insidious programs that start as soon as you start Windows? Do you want to know how to shut them off? Here's how...
I was over working on a friend's college age daughter's PC. OMFG! As soon as I turned it on, I was met with an insane amount of adware and at least three different instant messengers. Wow! This "new" Pentium4 computer was sooo dog slow from the 50+ applications running on it. This is the application that helped me keep my sanity. MSCONFIG.
Go to your task bar and click on "Run" then type in MSCONFIG. Like so:
MSCONFIG will start. It looks like this...
Unclick "Load Startup Items" and then click on the "Apply" button.
You will then see this message...
Don't worry. This won't permanently disable the programs. It will only disable them until you click the "Load Startup Items" later on. Once you click the "Restart" button, your computer will restart. All of the evil programs should be gone once Windows boots back up.
You will be greeted by this message...
If you leave the checkbox next to "Don't show this message or launch the System configuration Utility when Windows start" and click the "OK" button, Windows will now start up like normal without this message.
You don't want to leave everything disabled. You'll be running without any anit-virus software or firewall. That's bad. Instead do what you need to get done and then run MSCONFIG again. This time check the "Load Startup Items" box. Now when your restart Windows everything will be back to normal like nothing ever happened. BUT you will still get this message...
Just click OK and shut down the computer. Nobody will ever know that you shut off their programs. Cool, huh?
There is a catch though. By only disabling the Startup Items there may still be a programs or two that still runs. These programs are most likely running as a "service". Evil monitoring software and some update stuff is loaded as a service. A service is a program that is loaded in the background that you don't normally see. In MSCONFIG, you can see what services are loaded by clicking on the "services" tab. See...
If you see something funky, unclick the box next to it. It's just that easy.
Again, you can undo everything by just re-clicking the boxes that you have unchecked.
Have fun!
I was over working on a friend's college age daughter's PC. OMFG! As soon as I turned it on, I was met with an insane amount of adware and at least three different instant messengers. Wow! This "new" Pentium4 computer was sooo dog slow from the 50+ applications running on it. This is the application that helped me keep my sanity. MSCONFIG.
Go to your task bar and click on "Run" then type in MSCONFIG. Like so:
MSCONFIG will start. It looks like this...
Unclick "Load Startup Items" and then click on the "Apply" button.
You will then see this message...
Don't worry. This won't permanently disable the programs. It will only disable them until you click the "Load Startup Items" later on. Once you click the "Restart" button, your computer will restart. All of the evil programs should be gone once Windows boots back up.
You will be greeted by this message...
If you leave the checkbox next to "Don't show this message or launch the System configuration Utility when Windows start" and click the "OK" button, Windows will now start up like normal without this message.
You don't want to leave everything disabled. You'll be running without any anit-virus software or firewall. That's bad. Instead do what you need to get done and then run MSCONFIG again. This time check the "Load Startup Items" box. Now when your restart Windows everything will be back to normal like nothing ever happened. BUT you will still get this message...
Just click OK and shut down the computer. Nobody will ever know that you shut off their programs. Cool, huh?
There is a catch though. By only disabling the Startup Items there may still be a programs or two that still runs. These programs are most likely running as a "service". Evil monitoring software and some update stuff is loaded as a service. A service is a program that is loaded in the background that you don't normally see. In MSCONFIG, you can see what services are loaded by clicking on the "services" tab. See...
If you see something funky, unclick the box next to it. It's just that easy.
Again, you can undo everything by just re-clicking the boxes that you have unchecked.
Have fun!
posted by BP at 2/20/2006 10:45:00 PM
4 Comments:
I waited to read this till I was at work because I thought the pics might show up here...
nope.
I think this is a "college" kids kinda issue for sure. You just decribed exactly what happens when I try to use my son's computer...
Yeah, I don't know what the heck is with Blogger and Image Hosting, but they don't like each other. I've been meaning to re-upload everything but I haven't had time. Stupid computer crap. ;)
I'll give you a full report on how well you did in "teaching' tomorrow....
hey, r u on call? :)
First I gotta fix the pictures. ;)
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