Running in SelectiveStartup

[FrankSG]

My OS is VISTA Home Premium and prior to Vista I used XP. Since by default, there are always too many things running is the back ground using up system resources. Actually, just about everything you install will have a checkmark next to it in the startup tab. Many of the things running, I don't need running. So I alway go to MSCONFIG and choose Selective Startup. I then go to the startup tab and uncheck many of the things that I feel are not necessary. I then always run my system on SELECTIVE STARTUP. But I've read somewhere that you should not run your system in SELECTIVE STARTUP on a continual basis. Is this correct? It seems to me that it's better not to have so many things running in the background; or am I wrong? ~Frank~

[mjc]

Most things can be turned off from within the main program itself. Or something like HijackThis can be used.

One of the main things with using MSConfig, is that it doesn't really do anything with the program (it moves the startup entry to a different category in the registry, but leaves all the info there)...this is kind of like making a 'no startup' folder in the Start Menu and moving shortcuts out of the Startup folder to there instead of deleting them. Many programs will have options during install, if you select the custom install option. Most have the option to turn off the startup somewhere in their options.

Also, using Selective Start all the time makes it harder to use when you need to diagnose a problem (because you may have to turn stuff on before you can turn it all off again...).

There are more reasons, but those two are probably the easiest to understand.

It is a very bad way (many, many reasons) to control services...they should never be stopped with MSConfig, unless for strictly diagnostic reasons.

[FrankSG]

Thanks, mjc. I'll check the other options that you mentioned to turn them off.

[Sylvander]

The FREE Startup Control Panel (http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml) is GREAT for that job.

Compatible with XP & Vista.