Is It Safe To Disable System Startup Items/Applications?

For years I've been using my computer like everyone else. So naturally I've installed many programs onto my pc without hesitation. Over time I've notice a lag when I turn on my pc. It's not a big time slow down but it's noticeable. For example I usually have to wait about 30-60 seconds from the time I type my password in the win xp login screen until the time I can actually use the pc because everything is loading up.

I sit and wait patiently as I see a few systray icons load up, and never touch any application with my mouse because if I do I know it won't load for a while. This of course because as I said I have to wait until my pc has loaded everything. I only have three things in my systray at starup:

1. Avg

2. Volume Control

3. In Cd Icon [Nero]

Even though I only have 3 things load up in my systray I know there are so many background processes loading up when I login to windows. & I also know this is why I wait 30-60 seconds until I can use my pc without lag time [temporary slow down]. I've had this program called "System Mechanic v4" on my pc for a couple of years. It actually has a "Startup Control" option where you can enable or disable startup items. Here's an actual picture I took of the application listing all of the items I can enable or disable:

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/7107/startupxu3.jpg

I've been quite hesitant to use System Mechanics Startup Manager for a long time. Well I'm now fed up with all of the wasted time I spend when my pc loads that I rather use this and disable whatever I have to in order to have that extra boost of speed during logins. Heck I don't know but it probably boosts my pc speed in general during use. Anyways I'm scared because I don't know if my pc or applications will cause undesired operation or crashes if I disable all of these items. For instance some of those items looks like they're referring to C:/WINDOWS or applications like Nero or my Webcam [VX1000]. I don't want anything bad to happen such as disabling a Nero item and than I decide to run Nero hours after computer usage in order to find undesired operation or crashes. I hope you all understand what I mean.


Is it safe for me to use this startup manager to disable all of these items?

Will this cause undesired operation?

What items do you believe I should disable from that list?

Please do not suggest that I use msconfig because I won't. System Mechanics Starup Manager is easier to use and easier to enable/disable items at anytime.




- Thank You

 

Actually, the only thing I see that would need to be on at startup is AVG..

Dont see a firewall.. AVG AV/Firewall?

 

The program he is using is fine for that.. even lets you re-enable it if you need to.



Meit

 

Thank you very much that was great advice. I actually found a site called www.castlecops.com/StartupList where they have thousands of startup items by name with descriptions as to what they do and if they are needed or not. I went there and typed every startup item on my list in the search box and found information on all of them. Lucky me because a few of the items did have to stay enabled and that site told me to do so. I've avoided problems that way... I can't really tell if everything is a whole lot faster but I assume it is.


Thanx

 

You know what I've had my usb webcam disabled for a year in my system mechanic software startup manager. & well I wanted better reach from my hands to the farrrr back usb ports close to my wall because I'm always plugging stuff in and my webcam cord is always in the way because of the port position it's in. So I turned off my pc tonight and moved the webcam usb cable to another port. When I rebooted my pc I noticed that there is now two of the same items in system mechanic. One is disabled which I had like I said before, and the other is the same item but it's enabled. I assume the pc reinstalled the webcam behind the scenes and created a new startup for it. Is it safe for me to remove/delete the old disabled one and leave the new one enabled? They're both the same names and same paths.

http://i32.tinypic.com/2qa4y3a.jpg

 

Sorry never mind I fixed the issue myself. All I had to do was enable the exact copy that was disabled and than click the refresh button. Once I did that the second copy disappeared and only one was left enabled in the list. Therefore the software solved the problem!