Cleaning Up StartUp/Msconfig

Things you don't want to start up automatically should first be disabled in the option of the program itself, or these may override the Msconfig settings, as you have noticed.

In case of Real Player: View/Preferences/Start Center/Settings/remove check mark.

If you want to get rid of the unchecked items in Msconfig that you'll be sure you'll never need, you'll have to edit the registry:

Start/Run/'regedit'.

Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run- and RunServices-

Note the - (minus) sign behind Run and RunServices.

In those two subkeys you'll find the Msconfig/startup entries that are UNchecked.
Highlight the ones you'd like to get rid of in the RIGHT pane, and choose 'delete'.

And next thing you know, they're gone...

As I said, don't remove stuff this way you still have, and might want back in startup, for in that case restoring them gets a little more complicated.

Good luck,

Hewee, it's easier to just recheck it in Msconfig but it's not magic what Msconfig does. You could just as easily drag the shortcut back to the Startup folder at c:\Windows\All Users\StartMenu\Programs\Startup and reenable it, too.

Anyway, if anyone's interested, here's what Msconfig does if you Un-Check an item.

1) If the program is loading from a Registry Run or RunServices key, it moves the registry entry to the "Run-" and "RunServices-" key in the registry, whichever is applicable.

2) If the program is loading from the Startup folder, it moves the shortcut to the "Disabled Startup Items" folder. If the "Disabled Startup Items" folder doesn't exist, it creates it.

3) If a program is loading from a Win.ini file "Load=" or "Run=" line, it changes the line to "NoRun=" or "NoLoad=", whichever is applicable.

If you Re-Check an item in Msconfig, it does the reverse process.

No magic, it's just doing the same thing you could do yourself but it does it for you. I'm not suggesting anyone manually make the changes since it's much easier to just let Msconfig do it for you but that's an explanation of what it's doing if anyone is curious.