Through Windows very pretty GUI file explorer it is sometimes hard to remember that some powerful tools can be hard to find through it, but are readily available through the “Run…” link that can be found on any Windows XP Start Menu.
MSCONFIG
I will begin with one of the most useful commands and programs I have found on not only speeding up my computer’s boot time, but also allowing those annoying sneaky programs from starting up before they even have a chance.
First go to the Start Menu and click “Run…” or press the Windows Key and R at the same time. Both will bring up a prompt in the left-bottom corner of the screen. In this box type msconfig. A new box should pop up and should look like the screen below. If you have never edited this before, the Normal Startup radio button should be selected.
From here click on the Startup Tab and you should be presented with a list of items like the one listed below.
These are the are the non system necessary programs that start up with your computer. You may see ones for various anti-virus programs such as the avgtray item listed above. You may uncheck whichever ones you like, but only try to uncheck ones you know are absolutely unnecessary to your computers normal operations. I don’t take responsibility for errors due to the unchecking of any of these entries.
Another way to view Startup programs is to get to the “Run..” prompt again and type in the box “C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup” without the quotes. If there are any programs are in there that you don’t want starting up you can delete them. Also, you can put shortcuts to programs in here such as shortcuts to Batch files you want running at startup.
SERVICES.MSC
First go to the Start Menu and click “Run…” or press the Windows Key and R at the same time. Both will bring up a prompt in the left-bottom corner of the screen. In this box type services.msc. A new box should pop up and should look like the screen below.
These are the various services that your computer runs. If you right click on an entry you will see the menu that is shown above. If you want extended information about each service, go to the “extended” tab on the bottom left hand corner of this window. There are several columns listed by default describing each service and services can be sorted by each category by double clicking on the name of that column. The Name column obviously shows the name of the service and the Description one shows the description of the service. The Status of the service shows whether it is active or not shown by whether the service is started or not. The Startup Type shows whether the service is set to start up with the computer or when needed (Automatic), requires to user to start it (Manual), or is disabled from working at all.
Now if you right click on a service and go to Properties, you will be shown a box just like below.
If the program is running it will have the option to Stop the program and if the program is on Manual but not started then you can Manually Start it here. The Startup type dropdown box allows you to choose whether to make the serrvice be Automatic, Manual, or Disabled. In this case I disable the Messenger service because this program is notable for showing spam on your computer. There are multiple sites online that sell Messenger ads that are spammed to millions of users around the world who have this service enabled. It was originally made for communicating on a network but has been exploited in multiple ways. I suggest you disable this, but again you take your own risk when disabling any service and mess up your computer in any way.
CMD
One way to get to the famous Command Prompt is to go to the “Run…” prompt which you should know how to get to by now and type in cmd. This should bring up the command prompt in all its glory. I will do another post some other day on the usefulness of the Command Prompt.
REGEDIT
One of the most powerful tools on the computer, but also one of the most dangerous is the Registry Editor, accessed by typing regedit into the “Run…” prompt. I will not go further into the Registry editor at the moment, because of the severe damage it can cause to your computer if anything wrong is done with it. It is however a database of all settings and configurations for most if not everything that runs on your computer. I may do a separate post on this someday.
Other Things to Do
GPEDIT.MSC
To access the group editor and change permissions or settings for users you can type gpedit.msc in the “Run…” prompt and play around with it.
File Browser
The “Run…” prompt can be used as a file browser by typing in the location of any folder. A Explorer viewer will popup once you have pressed enter.
