Perform a clean startup of Windows the easy way

From time to time you may experience issues with a program not working as expected on your Windows computer.  To assist in troubleshooting, Microsoft has included a tool that many have forgotten about even though it has been around since Windows 98.  The tool is called System Configuration and is accessed by typing msconfig in the start menu.  You will note that making changes to any of the options in the utility will require a restart of your system to take effect.

When you run the tool the first screen you get is the General tab.  You can see that by default the system is set for Normal startup.  You also have options for Diagnostic startup and Selective startup.

Selecting the Boot tab gives you a choice of various boot options that you can choose from.  If you click on the Advanced options button you can also select the number of processors and the maximum memory.  You should note that the maximum value for both of these options is based on your hardware.

Moving on to the Services tab, you will see all the services listed that are installed on your computer.  If you suspect that some third party service may be causing you problems you can check the box to Hide all Microsoft services and then Disable all remaining services.

The fourth tab is the Startup tab.  This screen lists all the registry keys that cause applications to start when the computer boots.  Not only is this great for troubleshooting, it’s good to remember if you have an application that you don’t want to uninstall but it doesn’t give you an option to not run on startup.

The last tab is the Tools tab.  From here you can launch a variety of additional tools and information screens.  It is great to have all these helpful tools in one convenient location.

The System Configuration Utility provides a great set of and options to help you troubleshoot issues with your system.  For more information please see:  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/331796.

Rick is a Senior Support Lead at OrcsWeb, a hosted server company providing managed hosting solutions.