Start-up and RAM problems.

I'm running XP Home on a laptop and have recently come across a problem. At start-up, XP loads very slowly, and during normal usage there are a lot of background apps running. I can go through and end them, but I'd like to know a good place to look up the processes so I can make sure I'm not deleting something I need. Also, I can't seem to remember how to edit the start-up process itself, so I don't have to go and delete all that extra junk every time I boot up. Thnx in advance for the help!

 

Hi CommanderRandom take a look here http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

it will tell you what you need and what you don't , you will need to take your time over doing this . go through the list one at a time

 

LOL....Have you ever tried deleting "explorer.exe"? Still safe, I guess, but....inconvenient.

 

Explorer.exe shouldnt be in the startup list in msconfig. If it is... sounds like somthing is wrong.. maybe spyware/virus. As robo said, most of the stuff in the startup list in msconfig is non-essential... MOST of it anyway. Make sure that you have at least a vague idea of somthing is before you go ahead and uncheck it. That way if you do uncheck somthing that you shouldnt you'll know what it was and why it went wrong.

 

Why would you wan't to delete explorer.exe?

Windows xp needs a curtain number of running processes to work . The ones you can see in windows task manager are there because they need to be or you have decided you need them there.

The link to black viper shows you how to disable all the services that you don't need.

 

Hi goldfish, i'm just guessing now but i think CommanderRandom was seeing explorer.exe from windows task manager / processes tab

 

Ahhh yes... I thought he was meaning in msconfig. Yeah ive "Ended" explorer.exe before... yeah its annoying

BTW, services dont specifically come up in task manager as seperate processes. Some clump together in instances of "svchost.exe", and not all of them are running all the time (if they are set to manual, that is). So you can't "End" specific services as a process.. but you can stop them (in services.msc). But that doesnt mean that you can decreace processor usage from services using BV's tweak.

 

Yes, I was reffering to ending explorer.exe from the Task Manager. Thnx for the info about msconfig...for some reason I had forgotten about it. I tried to actually find it under the Control Panel, etc., but if it's there I didn't see it.

Anyways...I have another question for you guys. On this same computer, I'm missing a .dll file that I think (from what info I've thus far managed to gather) is specific to laptops running XP home (though it might be something else entirely. I haven't noticed any adverse effects of its being deleted (I think right after I ran Adaware), but every time I boot up an error msg comes up. Anyways, the file and path are/were C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\BRIDGE.DLL Basically, I'd like to know what the freak it is, how to replace it if I need it, and/or how to stop the error msg popping up if I don't need it. A way to restore it that is, other than using system restore. If I there's no other way, I will....but I don't wanna.