It's So Slooooooooooooooooow! Part 3
by Gary Woods

One of the things that make your computer start slower and sometimes run erratically is all the stuff that loads on startup. All those little icons in the lower right hand corner of your computer screen represent programs loaded in the background. To help this out Microsoft has a program called msconfig. Msconfig first appeared in Windows 98 and has appeared in every version of windows since except 2000. But, if you can find a friend who has it running on either 98, XP or ME you can copy it from their machine to yours.

To access msconfig go to Start then Run and type msconfig. One of the tabs is labeled Startup. Click on the tab and look at all the stuff that's loading at startup. Across the top of the program there are three headings labeled Startup Item, Command and Location, if you see anything under location labeled either C:\windows\system32\ or C:\Winnt\system32\ you should probably leave alone, but anything else you can give a try.

When you close msconfig it asks if you want to reboot your machine, just say Yes. When the computer boots next time you'll get a warning message that the computer is running in a diagnostic mode. You can just click "don't show me this again" and it won't come back the next time you boot up. It might take a while to experiment with removing and adding programs at startup, but you'll probably be a whole lot happier with the speed you gain.

If you have any suggestions or questions for me please drop me a note at garyandlaury@santabarbaraproperties.com or see my column on the Internet at http://www.santabarbaraproperties.com or call me at (805) 729-0910

Gary Woods is the Computer Trainer for the Santa Barbara Association of Realtors and a Broker/Associate at Home Realty & Investments, Inc.