Increase your PC’s performance and speed up startup times by shutting
off applications and services that you don’t need.
One of the best ways to speed up your PC without having to spend money on extra
RAM is to stop unnecessary programs and services from running whenever you start
your PC. When too many programs and services run automatically every time you
start up your system, startup itself takes a long time—and too many programs and
services running simultaneously can bog down your CPU and hog your memory.
Some programs, such as anti-malware software, should run automatically at startup
and always run on your computer. But many other programs, such as instant messenger
software, serve no purpose by being run at startup. And while you need a
variety of background services running on your PC for Windows to function, many
services that run on startup are unnecessary.
Eliminating Programs that Run at Startup
The task of stopping programs from running at startup is particularly daunting because
there’s no single place you can go to stop them all. Some run because they live
in the Startup folder, others because they’re part of logon scripts, still others because
of Registry settings, and so on. But with a little bit of perseverance, you should be able
to stop them from running.
Cleaning Out the Startup Folder
Start by cleaning out your Startup folder. It’s in
C:\Users\User Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
where User Name is your Windows logon name. Delete the shortcuts of any programs you don’t want to
run on startup. As with any shortcuts, when you delete them, you’re deleting only the
shortcut, not the program itself.
Using the Task Manager
Taking the previous steps will stop the obvious programs from running at startup, but
it won’t kill them all. The best tool for disabling hidden programs that run on startup
is the Task Manager’s Startup tab, shown in shown in Figure 1. To run it, press Ctrl
+Alt+Del and select Task Manager, then click the Startup tab. You can also run Task
Manager by typing Task Manager on the Start screen and clicking the Task Manager
icon that appears, or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Esc.
Figure 1.
The Startup tab of the Task Manager
You’ll find the Startup tab exceptionally useful for deciding which programs and services
should run at startup, and which can be safely disabled. Over on the right side,
you’ll see a “Startup impact” column. For each service and app listed, the column tells
you whether the impact on startup is Low, Medium, or High. That lets you concentrate
on disabling the Low impact items.
Sometimes the name of the app makes clear what it does. For example, Microsoft
SkyDrive obviously runs Microsoft’s SkyDrive client. But often, you’ll have no clue what
an app does. What to make of the “hkcmd Module” shown in Figure 1-6, for example.
You can see in the Publisher column it’s from Intel. But what is it, and what does it do?
You’ll need information like that to decide whether to disable it or not.
To gather information about a startup item, right-click it and select “Search online.”
That launches an Internet search using your default browser and default search engine.
The results usually give you links to many sites with details about the service or
app. In the instance of “hkcmd Module,” for example, I was able to discover that it’s
an app that lets you get access to customizing an Intel chipset’s graphics properties.
See Figure 2 for an example of this.
Figure 2.
Mystery solved: details about “hkcmd Module”
To stop an app from running at startup, right-click it and select Disable. This prevents
it from running, although the app will still be on your hard disk.
When you stop programs from running at startup, it’s best to stop them one at a time
rather than in groups. That way, you can make sure that you’re not causing any system
problems. So, stop one and restart your PC. If it runs fine, stop another and restart.
Continue doing this until you’ve cleared all the programs you don’t want to run
automatically.
After you’ve used the Task Manager to identify programs that run upon startup, you
may want to try disabling them from within the programs themselves. Run each program
that starts automatically, and see if you can find a setting that allows you to
prevent it from running on startup.
Using the Registry to Halt Programs Running on Startup
Even the Task Manager won’t necessarily let you identify and turn off all programs that
run on startup. You might also need to hack the Registry to disable them. To do so,
launch the Registry Editor by pressing Windows key+R, typing regedit in the box that
appears or at a command prompt and go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
In the right pane, you will see a list of some of the programs that run automatically at startup. The Data field
tells you the path and name of the executable so that you can determine what each
program is. Right-click any program you don’t want to run, and choose Delete. That
will kill any programs that run and are specific to your account. To turn off programs
that run for every user of the system, go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
and follow the same instructions for deleting other programs that you don’t want to run at startup.
Shutting Off Services That Run at Startup
Constantly running in the background of Windows are services—processes that help
the operating system run, or that provide support to applications. Many of these
services launch automatically at startup. Although you need many of them, many
aren’t required and can slow down your system when they run in the background.
You can prevent services from running at startup using the Services Computer Management
Console snap-in, shown in Figure 3. Run it by typing services.msc at the
Start screen and clicking the icon that appears. You can also type services.msc into
the Run box or command prompt box. The Services Computer Management Console
snap-in includes a description of all services, so you can know ahead of time whether
a particular service is one you want to turn off. It also lets you pause the service so
you can test out your machine with the service off to see whether it’s needed.
After you run the console, click the Extended tab. This view shows you a description
of each service in the left pane when you highlight the service. The Startup Type column
shows you which services launch upon startup—any services with “Automatic”
in that column. Click the top of that column to sort together all the services that automatically
launch on startup. Then highlight each service and read its description.
When you find a service that you want to turn off, right-click it and choose Properties.
In the Properties dialog box that appears (Figure 4), choose Manual from the “Startup
type” drop-down list. The service won’t start automatically from now on (unless
another service requires it in order to start), but you can start it manually via the
console. If you want the service disabled so that it can’t be run, choose Disabled. (If
you disable a service that a critical Windows service depends on, that service won’t
be able to start either, which could cause problems.) If the service is necessary, but
you’d still like your PC to start more quickly, you can choose Automatic (Delayed Start).
Figure 3.
The Services Computer Management Console
When you choose this, the service won’t launch immediately on startup, so
your PC will start more quickly, but will wait a little bit, and load once you’re using your
PC. That way, the service will still be available to you, but it won’t slow down startup.
To test the effects of turning off the service, turn off any services you don’t want to
run by clicking “Stop the service” in the left pane, or by right-clicking the service and
choosing Stop. Note that some services can’t be stopped while the system is running.
You’ll have to set them to “manual” and reboot to see the effect of turning them off.
Table 1 lists some common services you might want to halt from running at startup.
(Some, such as Remote Registry, are disabled by default, but might have somehow
been turned on.)
Table 1. Services you may want to turn off
Figure 4.
The Properties dialog box of a service
Hacking the Hack
There’s a new mode in Windows 8 called Fast Startup, that starts up your PC much
more quickly after you’ve shut it down. With Fast Startup, when you turn off your PC,
the kernel is saved to disk, and that kernel is then used to start Windows back up,
significantly decreasing startup time.
Note that this feature only works when you shut your system down and then start it
again. If you instead choose Restart rather than shutting your system down, Fast
Startup doesn’t come into play. By default, Fast Start is enabled, but it’s a good idea
to make sure it hasn’t been turned off on your system. On the Start screen, press
Windows key+W, type Power, and then click the Power Options icon that appears on
the left side of the screen. Click “Choose what the power buttons do,” and, on the
screen that appears, in the Shutdown settings area (Figure 5), make sure the “Turn
on fast startup” checkbox is turned on.
Figure 5.
Making sure Fast Startup is turned on
See Also
• “How to Speed Up Boot Time of Windows 8”
