Recover RAM by taking control of your Start Menu - Part 5 of Extending your Computer’s Life Series

Today we are going to help you recover some RAM without spending money!!! It will be like a super charge for your computer’s performance. When I used to do this - I used the msconfig route that my sister, Heidi, mentions - but I always hated messing in the Start Up menu. She has found a new tool that makes it easier. (I just used it & it was straightforward & easy. I turned off 4 things).
BUT a word of CAUTION!!
One golden rule - if you do not wish to render your system unbootable and useless is that if you do not know what it is, leave it as it is. This means don’t mess with the following (an autorun programme, a service, a driver) & if you’re unsure, let it run. The rule of thumb that I’ve always heard is leave things alone like: System, Microsoft (except the messenger), printer, etc

Getting rid of unnecessary processes that always run on your computer:

Did you know that having a lot of unnecessary things running on your computer slows down your computer & affects performance? For memory intensive software, like photo editing software, this can play a big factor in how well the software runs.

How do I know what to get rid of?
Well, this is probably the toughest question to answer. If you use something daily then you can probably want it to start automatically. If you don’t use it daily (or every time you use the computer) then there is no need to have it start automatically.

Where do I look for things that automatically start?
In the past this has been very difficult to do and it has required an experienced user. Users had to check startup folders, tasks running in system tray, system configuration tool (msconfig) and the registry. Microsoft released a new systems tool that does this all for you. It can be found here: AutoRuns for Windows v8.61 (scroll to the bottom)

How to use AutoRuns?

• To use, download the zipped file, unzip it and start autoruns.exe.
• This will bring up a list of everything running on your system. For seeing what is starting, you want the logon tab.
• Now there will be plenty of stuff here you will not recognize. Some things are necessary and some aren’t. How can you tell? They provided a nice description so that will give you a clue.
  • Don’t stop things running that are for your hardware, virus checkers, system.
  • Things to look for: windows messenger, real player, AOL stuff, etc. Obviously if you use one of these on a daily basis then you may not want to stop it.
  • When removing it from startup, you are NOT deleting the program, you are just stopping it from starting every time you turn on the computer. For example, if I want to use real player, I will start it by myself or click on a music file and it will start.
  • Don’t know what some things are? Click on the item, right click and choose “Search Online” (keyboard shortcut: Ctrl - M) This will bring up your browser and automatically search on that item. Click on some of the first few hints and it will describe what the item is and usually if its necessary.
• Once you have decided to stop something from starting, click on the box next to it and it will not start the next time your computer starts.
• If you determine you don’t like not having it run, restart autoruns and click the box to have it run again.
• Reboot & your computer should be refreshed!
• It’s that easy.

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