Win98 used to have a nifty little utility (msconfig, I believe) that would allow you to see what Windows was loading during startup and, more importantly, allowed you to disable start-up programs that you didn't need/want.

Is there something similiar on WinXP? If so, how is it accessed? I rarely use WinXP, so I haven't really had a chance to sit down and figure it out myself.

Why? Building my new computer tomorrow.... and one of my top priorities with any machine (work or personal) is disabling all the junk running in the background or unneccessarily loading/executing during start-up.

Thanks in advance,
V

sure is... goto Start->Run->"msconfig"
there may be other ways to get to it, but that is what I use

Black_Hole has answered your specific query. If you want to change other settings, go to the control panel and make sure it is in classic view, then go to Administrative Tools.

DON'T ever use msconfig. I heard that "services.msc" (sp?) was much more secure, since you couldn't just disable everything at once...

DON'T ever use msconfig. I heard that "services.msc" (sp?) was much more secure, since you couldn't just disable everything at once...

I didn't know that there was a problem with msconfig. I don't a lot in reality.

Never heard of services.msc

services.msc is the part of the Microsoft Management Console for your services. If you want to see all of them do Start>Run>"mmc" then File>Add/Remove Snap-in.

I don't know of any particular problem with msconfig. If you're looking at services (as opposed to startup programs) both it and services.msc will present you with a list of services that 95% of people won't recognize, or understand what they do... and if you shut off the wrong thing, you can seriously screw up your comp.

But anyway, msconfig is good for editing startup programs.

Yeah, but you can always google stuff before you turn it off. 99% of the time that will let you figure out what something is, even if you're totally uneducated about these things (like me, for example).

DON'T ever use msconfig.
That's partially correct. Use msconfig whenever the hell you want; just don't disable your services with it. Use services.msc to stop specific services indefinitely. Use msconfig to stop and disable unecessary startup crap like qttask.

If you want to know what services to disable and if it is safe to do so, check out the Black Vipers (http://www.blackviper.com/) web page.

(It is unfortunately down at the moment but this site has the services page mirrored):

Black Viper Mirror (http://www.dead-eye.net/WinXP%20Services.htm)

and this one the whole site: Web archive org (http://web.archive.org/web/20040924034016/www.blackviper.com/)

In XP, you cannot disable critical servises with msconfig. Or rather servises that it deams critical, which I assume to be correct.

In XP, you cannot disable critical servises with msconfig. Or rather servises that it deams critical, which I assume to be correct.

You can certainly disable services that will break windows....