[spot.dog]

hi i use an acer travelmate 290 laptop(second hand) with windows xp. it always runs a little slow and when i looked in the start up processes running there are loads of things i have no idea what they are i think it was all put on bythe person who used to own it. i was told this is slowing it down?
is it possible to tell me what is safe to remove or what i must not touch?
Sorry but im a complete novice with this stuff

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It's safer to only disable startup items you think you don't need, and only delete them once you are sure it's not required. That way you can easily restore them if your PC complains. However, as every PC has different software and hardware on it, it's impossible to give you a list of what can be safely disabled. Whenever I'm confronted with this dilemma I 'google' the name of the startup file and make a decision based on what information it turns up.

As a start, the best way to see the actual filenames of your startup items (and it's parent folder, which is a good way of telling what it belongs to) is to use the free "Startup Control Panel". It lets you disable any of them but also lets you restore. It features a tabbed interface according to where the startup items are being called from, so you need to click on them all in turn. Get it here:
http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

Edited by pip22, 13 January 2007 - 08:58 AM.

[pip22]

It's safer to only disable startup items you think you don't need, and only delete them once you are sure it's not required. That way you can easily restore them if your PC complains. However, as every PC has different software and hardware on it, it's impossible to give you a list of what can be safely disabled. Whenever I'm confronted with this dilemma I 'google' the name of the startup file and make a decision based on what information it turns up.

As a start, the best way to see the actual filenames of your startup items (and it's parent folder, which is a good way of telling what it belongs to) is to use the free "Startup Control Panel". It lets you disable any of them but also lets you restore. It features a tabbed interface according to where the startup items are being called from, so you need to click on them all in turn. Get it here:
http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

Edited by pip22, 13 January 2007 - 08:58 AM.