start up time

[shan]

you can always turn some of ur unwanted services such as
printer, wireless netowork config, CD burning COM service, some remote stuff, windows firewall, security center(i left it at manual as it would tell me if something is wrong with my av)

[Flubug]

The easiest way is to use Anvir Taskmanager. When you run it, one of the tabs (Startup) will list all the programs which automatically start when you boot windows. In order to remove it from the startup list you simply clear it's check box. As long as you don't disable essential windows services (which anyway is not listed in Anvir under Startup) you will not have a problem in booting.

If you do not want to use any 3rd party utilities, you can do this:
1. Click the Start button
2. Select Run
3. Type in msconfig
4. Head over to the Startup tab
5. Uncheck any entries that you do not require to startup

You must remember that the more space you use on your hard disk (ie. the more programs you install) will have a negative effect on startup times, unless you do some tweaking. The protection on your PC is not to bad so I don't think it is malware. What I do know is that Panda take a lot of resources and I bet if you disable it you will see a marked improvement.

Well, if your HDD is defragged (Including boot time defrag), the boot files are usually already placed at the inner edge of the HDD. Therefore, I don't think that space usage will affect the boot time. Correct me if I'm wrong. I'm not entirely positive. Let me Google.

[prashanthpai]

Odie said "more space you use on your hard disk (ie. the more programs you install) will have a negative effect on startup times, unless you do some tweaking" - it's true :)

msconfig will not display some startup entry that's in registry entries. A better simple alternative would be
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/strun.html
Or the more advanced Autorun from Sysinternals.

[Odie]

Or the more advanced Autorun from Sysinternals.

I have used both Anvir's taskmanager and Sysinternal's Autoruns but prefer Anvir's Taskmanager. Why would you say Autoruns is more advanced?

BTW great Avatar :lol:

[prashanthpai]

It has lots of more detail like it displays every file or service or driver that loads right from boot. Disabling any critical entry will make system unstable.

http://apcmag.com/system/files/images/autoruns_02.jpg
http://lpetr.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/autoruns.PNG
these pics are quite large

[Odie]

It has lots of more detail like it displays every file or service or driver that loads right from boot. Disabling any critical entry will make system unstable.

I agree, but it probably is not for noobs. :P

[prashanthpai]

[Flubug]

msconfig will not display some startup entry that's in registry entries. A better simple alternative would be http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/strun.html Or the more advanced Autorun from Sysinternals.

I belive msconfig is sufficient for a regular user. It's easy and simple. If you prompt some normal user to use something slightly more complex like Autoruns, he could be bizarred. Anyway, I would hope that Macro will take the initiative to learn more. So prolly he could use Autoruns.