Acer Laptop

Thanks both, no problem using winpatrol, just not sure what I can stop from startup without messing my system up… I am very good at mesing things up ;D

Especially the ones put on by acer ???

When you open the startup tab, hover the mouse button between the column headings. You will see the cursor change to a double arrow, left click and hold down and drag to the right. You should now be able to expand (any windows column) the column wifth so you can see the full text of the Command.

As mauserme mentions the win patrol or S&D start-up sections may be a little more user friendly though. I also like CodeStuff Starter (http://www.snapfiles.com/get/starter.html) and there is also AutoRuns, which is very powerful but probably overkill and confusing if you aren’t familiar with what information it displays…

Some of it is just personal preference.

I always remove any traces of AOL from computers unless somebody uses it.

qttask (Quick Time) can be disabled as it can be run manually.

msnmsgr is MSN Messanger. I normally disable this.

I don’t like realsched but it won’t always stay disabled. Here are insructions if you decide against letting it run (some people consider it spyware)

http://www.help2go.com/Tutorials/MP3Audio/Disable_RealPlayer_realsched.exe.html

CastleCops says edSoader is not necessary but I’m not familiar with it

http://www.castlecops.com/s13151-eDSloader_exe.html

imjpmig and imscinst are part of Microsoft’s Input Editor to simplify the use of Asian characters. So if you don’t use Asian characters …

Its important to define those things that cannot be disabled before you start, then disable only a few of the things in the “possible to disable” list at a time and observe the effects. If nothing goes wrong disable a couple more. This way if you need to reverse something its easy to figure out.

Good advice from mauserme, take small steps, don’t try everything at once, if you do have an issue, it can be harder to say which caused the problem. Even doing it one at a time every few days (or longer if you wish), slow as it may be will eventually optimise your startup. You may also find your system is more responsive.

Well been ages at this have identified 9 items i can stop at startup (getting a headache now) :slight_smile:

still confused on RTHDCPL.exe
ntiMUI
rundll32.exe

been on google and get conflicting advice if I can suss these 3 out that will do for now lol

ohh forgot this one jusched I know its java but does it need to run at startup?

Google really is your friend in this:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/RTHDCPL.EXE-13554.html
http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/rthdcpl/

I did a quick google for ntiMUI and found lots of hits but little information and that makes me nervous ;D

rundll32.exe is a strange one as it can be a legit system file, but for the life of me I can’t see why it would need to be run on boot startup entry, this has in the past been a tactic of malware. I can’t say because you didn’t give the full path and information relating to this. This is one of the reasons I mentioned HJT because that provides more information rather than just a file name in isolation. I have a few entries for rundll32.exe in my startup tab (two disabled), but its use is legitimate for another dll for my video card controller.

Jusched is the Java update scheduler, some say it doesn’t work, personally I have disabled auto update checks in the JAVA Console, so no startup entry for me, your choice, but you need to periodically check, or monitor the << Updates >> topic as this is often notified there. I prefer control what connects to the internet and when, essential on dial-up.
http://www.processlibrary.com/directory/files/jusched

thanks David think I am getting there at last 13 less on start so far… :slight_smile:

Remember take it slowly a couple at a time so if an essential startup entry is missing or it cause a problem you have a fighting chance of finding which it is and re-checking it in the startup tab.

What about that information about rundll32.exe ?

Really have no idea on rundll32 I gon’t have it on my desktop, no idea where it came from or what to do with it :slight_smile:

You won’t have it on your desktop, the information on what application is using it is in the startup tab Command column, rundll32.exe followed by the program using it.

Thanks again David, looks like I have got somewhere at last only have 9 running at startup now so much quicker thanks everyone for the help :slight_smile:

Only have 7 icons in notification area now, will have six when I find out what the 2 monitors with a red cross are? My wireless icon is there so I know I havn’t messed that up, cd’s and dvd’s are playing ok and sound is fine… :slight_smile:

In most cases the icons have an access to the settings/options, right click on them and see if there are any menu items to access the control/settings.

Or run the program and see if there are settings to enable/disable program start on boot. Almost every program has some way to get to the settings/options, etc.

Did a right click and got to pic below, just as wise now lol

And this is it in notification area, bet you wished you hadn’t shown me how to put pictures in lol

Well these are basically to do with a network connection (mine are there when I connect {dial-up} to the internet. Thought they would also appear to indicate local traffic, if you have two or more PCs networked by cable, I’m assuming you haven’t (?). So there is no network cable attached hence the X.

Your motherboard would appear to have a network chip so you don’t have to install a network card, by default this is enabled in the BIOS. If you don’t use a network (like me) you could disable that in the BIOS.

I don’t recognise many of the other icons, avast obviously and the speaker bottom right is your volume controls. The others hover the mouse over them and see what the tooltip says about it, that may help you identify what it is. As I said before use the right click on the icons to see if it makes settings/options available.

So other than that I can’t be of much help.

Thanks again I know the others its just the monitor one thats bugging me now, desktop is wired and laptop is wireless through the router…can live with it lol

Your welcome.