A couple of my local Guru's seem to think it is important to go to Run > msconfig > and 'uncheck' most of the things listed there. Supposed to turn on my computer's afterburner, I guess.

Any merit to their claim?

B

Don't get crazy with that, you need to know what it is that you're unchecking.
Go line by line and do a search on google. There are a lot of sites that will tell you what you're looking at and if you need it in there at startup. A lot of services should be there, but you can't always tell from what you're looking at. Your antivirus suite may have a tool to help with this, I know TrendMicro does.

This can help a little.

http://www.blackviper.com/Articles/OS/OSguides.htm

Makes sense. One said that I could un-check EVERYTHING, and what really needed to be there would 're-set' itself. Uh........... nope, not doing that, but still I did find and uncheck WinZip. I'll go cautious then and see what happens. This new 'Box is SO fast I wonder it little things like this topic really have any perceptible effect.... so I asked !

^Thanks speedbump - lots of good hints at blackviper's site!

Unchecking certain things (certainly not all things) can help with startup times.

What I do is to see what things are "checked" after a clean install. I usually leave those alone. Everything that comes after gets careful scrutiny, if I don't need/want it, out it goes. Helps a lot with the startup times.

<GROAN!>

-Skater

The reality is that there are certain things you can turn off to save memory or CPU cycles. Some people would disagree and say that letting everything run just like Microsoft says it should is a good thing. I know that is not the case because I've been turning of useless and unneeded programs that run in the background for years with no ill effects.

By the same token, turning off a program that needs to run to let another program run will keep something from loading that you might need.

Also black viper's site is perfectly safe as I've been going there for years with no ill effects. Just don't download any of his little registry programs and you will be fine. Messing with the registry if you don't know what you are doing or letting someone you don't know mess with the registry is not going to turn out well for you. Registry cleaning programs, in my experience, will generally leave you sorry you ever messed with them too. Registry cleaners are very good for a computer repairman's business though.

I have Microsoft's default safety program Defender turned off because I don't need it since I'm running Spybot and have had good luck with it. I also have Microsoft's free anti-virus program running too so I don't have a thing against Microsoft.