Does it seem the older your computer becomes the slower it runs? Why does it seem it takes twice as long to start-up your computer when you turn it on? There are thousands of reasons why this could be happening, but one of the major culprits is the amount of programs you have starting up during the boot-up of your computer.
In the following image you can see the current programs running in the background. While some of these programs were started by me 
manually, the majority of these programs were started automatically by Windows when I started my computer.
To free up some system resources you may want to remove programs from automatically starting when Windows starts-up. To see what’s starting automatically do the following steps.
- Press and hold the Windows key then R to open the Run dialogue box.
- Type msconfig and press Return
- Click on the Startup tab
Now you can see the list of programs starting when you start-up your computer. You need to ask yourself which programs do I need to have first thing when I start my computer. Certain items such as security software should be left alone. Other applications can be removed. In the example below I know the “Trend Micro…” is the name of an anti-virus application, I’ll leave that checked.
The Startup Programs
The Roxio Burn application is rarely used so I can keep it from being booted automatically by removing the check-box to the left of it. If you don’t know what the program does, then I suggest leaving it alone otherwise you may cause problems with your computer.
Once you finished checking and un-checking the programs press Ok. You will receive a message box asking you if you want to reboot now or later. If you’re busy doing something on your computer the just wait until later. If you have time go ahead and reboot.
Because each one of us use different computer, configured in different ways with different applications I cannot say how much “boost” you will notice after removing applications from Start-up. I do know that the more you remove the faster it will boot up. Just take some time reviewing all the programs which are in the list and remove the ones which you do not use often or the ones you don’t mind starting manually in the Start Menu.
