Urgently need advice on Start up items

Hi,

I still need help with my start up issue. I recently discovered that I'd left selective start up on and so certain items are now duplicated in the list in MSconfig (one checked and one unchecked). So basically I have two of a few things, such as CThelper.exe and jusched.exe and so on.

I just want to know how to get things back to normal now, because I currently cannot add new programs or uninstall anything without my computer freezing on startup. There are certain startup items I would also like to get rid of altogether, so need advice on that also. I also want to run a back up, but don't really want to back up the system in its current state.

Thanks,
Georgia

 

I recommend Startup Control Panel Standalone Version

 

Thanks for your reply, I'll try that.

There are an awful lot of duplicated startup items. Do you think I'd be fine just to use WinPatrol to get rid of the unchecked startup items altogether so I can go back to booting normally?

 

Oh and thanks mjnc, standalone is definitely a better idea since installing new programs does not currently go down well.

One more thing - I am trying to reinstall spybot and ad-aware, but these programs have startup items which are currently unchecked. I know that checking them will cause my PC to freeze when I reboot, and just uninstalling the programs will do the same (because I've tried already) so should I use this standalone applet to totally get rid of the startup items before attempting to re-install?

Thanks

 

I can not advise you about Winpatrol, because I've only used it briefly.

The Selective Startup selection is on the General tab and you should have Normal Startup selected.
If I'm following this correctly, the two items you mentioned, CTHelper.exe jusched.exe, on displayed on the Startup tab

IMHO, temporarily setting Selective Startup ON should Not result in certain entries being duplicated in the Startup list.
I have seen startup items duplicated after installing a program update without first having uninstalled the original program.
However, Only One is actually selected in the list.

Startup Control Panel can remove duplicate entries in a specific registry location like HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_Run.

Even with that done, my guess is that it will not fix all of your "lockup" problems.

I suggest that you first use Startup Control Panel to delete the duplicate entries, then boot up in Safe Mode
and try removing One of the offending programs.
If that works, Reboot, start Safe Mode again and remove the next program, etc.

 

Hey I'm just having a look in Startup control panel and none of the duplicated items are showing at all. The startup (common) tab is empty and startup (user) tab only have dropbox in it.

HKLM/Run has a few items in it but all checked and some that I didn't realise were running on startup (like malwarebytes - which is one of the programs I need to re-install since it doesn't run anymore). So now I am even more confused.

All I want to do is remove all of the duplicated items so I can swtich back to normal startup without my computer exploding. I would appreciate any more advice.

I don't really know what you mean when you say this. I don't want to start messing with the registry as I know very little about it...

The main issue that I cannot get my head around is that there are programs with services or processes running that I would like to uninstall (like malwarebytes - so I can reinstall it) but it causes a freeze when I do so.

Thanks

 

Check out my reply to http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=246348

In post #3, I mention WhatInStartup 1.33
That's the simplest Startup manager, I've come across. :cool

Give it a try and let us know what you think of it.

Bazza

 

If Malwarebytes is giving you trouble, Uncheck it on the HKLM/Run tab.
Also, start Malwarebytes and on the Settings tab -> Scheduler tab, if you have an Auto Update scheduled, delete that entry and any other scheduled tasks.

The HKLM is an abbreviation for HKEY Local Machine.
I am NOT suggesting that you go into the registry.

 

Thanks for both of those replies, I will try that as soon as I can.

Problem is, since my last reply I tried using blackviper's advice on Service configuration (since I figured it was all screwed up, so I should fix it before removing programs and so on). I went through and changed everything to what was 'safe' according to him. Obviously I did this a few services at a time, so I could go back and change something if it didn't work. So on my second reboot it froze again, so I went into safe mode and put everything back as it was. This didn't help, so I simply put everything to its default. This didn't work either. Then I performed a system restore to a checkpoint added yesterday, and I STILL can't boot up.

I suppose it was a bad idea changing my service configuration, but I thought it would help (since a lot of it was quite different to black viper's 'safe' list). Any advice at all?

I also don't actually know how to boot in safe mode since the system gives me a choice on whether to boot normally or not after it crashes. So if anyone can tell me how to do that it would be great. Currently it freezes after I try to login.

I'm running Windows XP x86 service pack 3

 

How To Boot In Safe Mode: Windows XP

the Safe settings at Black Viper should be OK.
However, IMHO, I don't think that is where your problem is.
If you keep changing too many things, you won't be able to keep track of what is happening.

 

Yes... I know the BlackViper's safe settings should be ok... that's why I wanted to use them. Obviously I have no idea what the problem is so I thought I'd try one thing at a time, his settings being one of them. But it evidently made things worse. How was I to know that would happen?

I don't really see how I've 'changed too many things' because I only changed one thing and reversed it, yet I still have a problem.

If I get things going again I'll try and remove programs which I think have issues and run crap cleaner. If you can suggest anything else that would be cool.

Thanks

 

Okay so I've managed to restore my machine to a previous state so I can actually use it properly now. I ran crap cleaner, everything was fine. I then attempted to clean the registry but it froze again on reboot so... I'm not sure what to do. Leave the registry as it is and start removing a couple of programs which are possibly causing problems?

 

Don't mess with the registry.
That is obviously giving you more headaches.

 

BTW, once you get things working again, do yourself a favor and get ERUNT - Emergency Recovery Utility for NT

It is a registry backup utility worth gold.
(Also registry defragger by same developer in the download package)

Read the Doc, learn how to (simply) make Manual on demand backups and set up the daily automatic backup.
If you need help, instructions are HERE

 

Thanks guy, I will look into that right away.

 

Ok so I've got a text file of the startup list in CCleaner so you can see exactly what I meant before.

Should I remove the disabled duplicates or do you think none of this matters? Also - and I've googled this many times but still am not sure - what exactly is iTunesHelper.exe really for, and can I just disable it? Thanks.

PS. I also don't get why TeaTimer.exe is still there since I completely removed Spybot with Revo uninstaller.