Here is an awesome tool that should have been integrated into Windows a long time ago. As a tech, a lot of computers that I see have become sluggish over time. The most significant cause that I find is that too many programs start up with the computer (often without the users knowledge or permission). This takes up valuble system resources.

A lot of people are familiar with the "msconfig" utility that can help Windows users disable such processes from starting up automatically. There are several ways that a program can configure itself to launch, and msconfig is unfortunatley limited in what it can detect. It can also be awkward to use.

Enter Mike Lin's Start Up Control Panel. This program is a real gem, in my opinion, and I use it as standard practice. It finds all of the third-party software that starts up automatically, and it's very simple to use. It is one peice of software that I would not want to do without. And it is a free download. Mike has a number of useful programs on his site. Gamers should check out Startup Selector.

Download Startup Control Panel from Mike Lin's homepage.

16 January 2003  |   permalink