Clean computer start menu for more speed

June 23, 2009 7:15 PM

I want to clean up my start menu on Dell Inspiron E1705 with Windows XP Pro. Computer beginning to run slowly. I use computer almost exclusively for internet, word-processing and Quicken. I have trouble identifying which entries on start menu to delete.
posted by psc1860 to computers & internet (10 comments total)

Erasing something from the start menu won't actually do anything. You need to see what's always running. You can run "msconfig" from the command prompt and see whats getting started up when the computer starts, and you may be surprised at how much crap is running.

You can also look at the task manager (hit ctrl-alt-delete) and see what processes are running. Enter them in google and see what programs they belong to and what they are doing.

Please don't delete anything until you have someone who knows what they are doing by your side, unless you would like a system that doesn't boot or run how you expect.

Good luck.
posted by bensherman at 7:21 PM on June 23

DriveSpacio to see what's on your hard drive.

CCleaner to clean out all the crap that accumulates from browsing the web.
posted by dfriedman at 7:32 PM on June 23

run malwarebytes just in case
how many icons do you have in your system tray (by the clock). Do you need all the stuff running in your system tray? Disable the stuff you don't want, that will help.
posted by defcom1 at 8:24 PM on June 23

Seconding bensherman that start menu is irrelevant - they're just pointers to the stuff you've got installed.

If you want to uninstall software from your computer, Microsoft has a handy guide. The Microsoft XP solution center might also contain some useful tips for you.
posted by kaydo at 8:27 PM on June 23

Ha, dfriedman beat me to it -- CCleaner is a pretty safe bet, likely won't delete anything you'll need, but does delete a lot of worthless junk that's shown up over the years. It's freeware, I download my freeware stuff from filehippo but just punch in CCleaner and you'll likely get about seventeen million hits...

And bensherman is right also; don't hit delete until you know what you're doing. Make a backup point (restoration point? wtf is it called?) which you can fall back to if things go lefthanded on you. But CCleaner won't take off needed software; it's a really sweet little piece of software.

Once you get it all cleaned up it sure does look and feel about twenty times better.

Have fun!
posted by dancestoblue at 8:27 PM on June 23

If you go to the start menu, then "Run...", and type "services.msc", you'll get a list of everything that starts when your computer does. You have the option to change things from automatic to manual or disabled, but it's generally just a good reference for seeing where your resources are going. Armed with that knowledge, use spybot or one of the solutions listed above.
Oh snap, or type "msconfig" like it also says above.
Tomatoes tomahtoes i s'pose :)
posted by hypersloth at 1:46 AM on June 24

I'm going to answer not with an answer, but with a clarification of what I think the question is.

Erasing something from the start menu won't actually do anything. You need to see what's always running. You can run "msconfig" from the command prompt and see whats getting started up when the computer starts, and you may be surprised at how much crap is running.

If I understand the OP correctly, the question is similar to one I've had. I've done this, and I get a list that looks something like this:

SynPTEnh
stsystra
KADxMAIN
AAWTRAY
qtask....

The question, if I understand it correctly, is "how do you tell what those items on that list actually are, so you can decide what you want to do with them?" I haven't heard of half those programs, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's malware -- it could be something that Windows/whatever needs to run in the background that I didn't know about. (I say this as someone who once tried "oh, I don't know what that is, I'll disable it" and it made my computer do bad things.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:17 AM on June 24

Following EmpressCallipygos - if that is your problem, google "What is SynPTEnh?" "Is X safe?" and you will get links to a number of different sites specialized in helping you do exactly this - figure out which things are important processes and which things are cruft / malware / optional.
posted by Meatbomb at 4:24 AM on June 24

Autoruns from microsoft's site shows more than MSconfig, is easier to use than MSConfig, and has an auto search built in so that you can google unknown apps with just a left click.

Use the backup feature before you make changes.
posted by anti social order at 5:21 AM on June 24

Spybot Search & Destroy includes a number of features (when Advanced mode is enabled) to manage startup programs, registry cruft, and other assorted performance tasks. It's got a database of what's what, so you don't need to google every Whtsths.exe process.
posted by unmake at 4:08 PM on June 24