Windows popups are another source that causes windows xp slow startup because some of these programs that cause them are loaded at startup. This causes a lack of memory. Why? Because your physical memory is eaten up every time a new program has to be loaded this then causes one of those in memory to be swapped out to disk. Hard disks are slower than memory especially on laptops. This is more so when starting up windows XP. The start-up process has to load all those programs you have decided to load at start-up into memory, a decision has to be made whether a portion of them has to be retained permanently in memory. If this is the case then this reduces the memory you have to load the others and as more and more get their bit retained in memory start-up gets slower and slower.
So why are you loading these programs at start-up? especially if they are causing that annoying windows popup. Do you use Skype, windows messenger, MSN messenger or any other social types of programs?
I called on a mate the other day and he said good you dropped in my PC takes for ever to start-up can you have a quick look at it. I switched it on and he said you may as well come into the kitchen and have a cup of tea, as it will take about 10 minutes to boot up.
Well after my cup of tea I went and had a look. To start he had Skype and MSN messenger starting up as well as some other things. First thing I asked him was how often do you use Skype and how often do you use MSN messenger. He said, Skype a couple of times a week and messenger maybe once a day.
I then looked at his memory and saw that he only had 256mbytes installed. Not a lot these days and I said to him maybe a bit more memory would be handy. Anyway I said I could improve your start-up time immensely. Why do you need to start Skype or messenger at startup when you use it so infrequently? Even if you use it frequently I would not load it at start-up especially messenger which seems to take an inordinate amount of time loading anyway.
Well to cut this short I removed these from start-up and the improvement was astounding. It then only took his PC only 90 seconds to start-up.
Now why is this? Well, during start-up the processor is constantly fighting to run programs simultaneously and is constantly trying to grab memory resources. So it’s a big fight.
The solution to this is to stop all those programs loading at start-up. All you need is an icon on your desktop so you can start them when you need to use them. After you have used them close them which will return the memory for other programs to use. Way to go man. Why do you need those programs running taking up permanent memory when you only use them a couple of times a day.
So what do we do to remove these programs from being started up? Just follow these instructions.
To stop Skype just click on “tools” then “options”. In the left box your will see a line that says “Start Skype when I start windows”. Un-tick the box next to it.
Now that irksome thing called messenger. Microsoft likes to confuse the heck out of people. There are actually two types of messenger. There is “Windows Messenger” and there is “MSN Messenger”. To confuse you further they are now calling “MSN Messenger” “Windows Live Messenger”. A further confusion if you see the icon that looks like two people in your tray at the bottom of the screen and you place your mouse pointer on it will pop up a text window that says “Windows Messenger” This is actually “MSN Messenger”.
The actual “Windows Messenger” is a backdoor method that allows Microsoft to send you unsolicited messages. Unfortunately it is also a backdoor security risk and spammers found it. So first lets turn this off you do not need it. This is how you do it.
Windows XP Home and XP Professional
1. Click Start-> Settings -> Control Panel
2. Click Administrative Tools
3. Click Services shortcut
4. Scroll down and highlight Messenger
5. Right-click the highlighted line and choose Properties
6. Click the STOP button
7. Select Disable in the Start-up Type scroll bar
8. Click OK
Now that’s out of the way lets concentrate on MSN Messenger.
There are two ways to stop MSN Messenger loading at start-up, one is by stopping it using Outlook Express if you use it and the other by modifying the “Windows Registry” which is a bit more technical. Stopping it from loading at start-up with Outlook Express does not stop it completely it only stops it from running in the background which is initiated during start-up. When you start Outlook express it then load MSN Messenger and stops it when you exit Outlook Express.
First it is recommended that you save the “Windows Registry” first. Just follow these instructions.
1. Click Start-> Run-> Type in “regedit”
2. In the widow that appears right click on “My Computer” then “export”
3. In the next window type in a file name. (make sure the filename type is .reg)
4. Click “save”
5. Exit from the “registry” window
To stop messenger running automatically using Outlook Express follow these instructions.
1. Start up “Outlook Express”
2. Click Tool > Windows Messenger > Options
3. In the window that comes up select the “preferences” tag
4. Under this tag un-tick everything in the “General” part.
5. Click OK and exit Outlook Express
You will notice that the “Messenger” icon will disappear from your tray. If you reload Outlook Express then it will re-appear.
Now for the tricky one. If you are unable to do the above then the “registry” has to be modified.
These instructions on disabling MSN Messenger contain information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs.
1. To Disable Messenger MSN from running go to the start menu and select RUN. In the window that appears type regedit.
2. The Registry editor window will now have opened. Navigate to the following Key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft.
Create a new key under “Microsoft” by selecting Edit from the main menu, select “New” then “Key”.
Name this new Key: “Messenger”.
3. Select the newly created “Messenger” Key and under it create another new Key. And name it “Client” It should look like this:
4. Right click on the new “Client” Key and select “New” then “DWORD value”.
Name the DWORD “PreventRun”.
5. Right click on the “PreventRun” Dword and select “modify”. Enter a value of “1” (one) then click OK.
6. Restart Windows XP and you will have successfully disabled MSN Messenger completely.
If you ever need to use messenger in the future just change the “PreventRun” value to “0” (zero).
Have fun and few less windows popups as well also if you need know more about the Registry file you can find out more about it by going to the “Windows XP Registry File“