Found the answer to my problem, it was the task scheduler of all things.
I occasionally fix friends computers usually after they run slow or stop running. My usual attack is to study the windows logs and fix what I can from the logs then clear all the system restore files, edit the registery for the program that run when windows starts and also the startup folder from the start button, remove any software that is not used or expired demos, then, fire up a linux distro and use it to delete all the temp stuff and the swap file, followed by putting the drive in a caddy and using ghost to make a backup and write the backup back to the drive for a cleanly orginised file system and mft.
But some auto starting stuff I still can't find, I thought I was doing well with the last computer here when out of the blue quicktime pops up for an update even though I had removed its auto startup from the registery.
The two place in the registery I delete startup files are:
HKEY_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Run
and
HKEY_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Run
Is there any other location I need to look in to stop software from loading at windows startup. I also look over the services that load and disable non windows related stuff and leave the owner to manaully start stuff unless they use it all the time and I leave it alone then.
Just the few steps I do now work well enough in most cases, the last laptop I tweeked I got from a 7 minute startup (unusable till then) to a little over 1 minute startup time.
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Found the answer to my problem, it was the task scheduler of all things.
I usually run MSCONFIG from the run line to disable unwanted items from start up or BOOTVIS to identify which programs are taking the longest to boot at start-up
Dash.
What you are doing sounds good, but personally I would just format, do a clean install of windows, and do what Dashinson said in MSCONFIG.
This way I am guaranteed to have a fresh start which I can then configure the pc the way I want. Just my 2cents
Its ok if it your own computer, but when people bring a computer over asking for help the last thing you want to do is start looking for drivers and backing up documents, emails+settings, looking over the drives for stuff store in odd places. For me I have far too much on my computer to want to reinstall cause of a few small issues, a quick trim of startup software, drive cleanup and defrag in most cases does well for a while.
I do however have backups from a fresh install and update it as time goes on with new software or changes to the OS, but being able to do a quick tuneup without a reinstall goes a long way when helping other people.
I got a 500gig caddy full of backups going back years just of my C: drive alone.
If I have the time I fresh install is the way to go.
Have a look at AutoRuns from microsoft (ex systernals)
Aboulaly (20-06-09)
Not a bad program at all, good thing I had a very recent backup as I went mad with shutting down stuff to see the results and after several reboots a BSOD. But deffinatly more controllable then MSconfig
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