How do I remove items listed in the Startup Configuration Utility?

wblanchard,

You listed most of the locations. There are a few more in the comprehensive listing here. Additionally, some applications will allow you to prevent them from starting with Windows by checking an entry under Options, Tools, or Preferences.

Thanks Denny,

I was looking to remove the items I don't have checked from the list for good--so when I view the Startup tab in Msconfig, I see only the items I have checked.  You can remove some from list, but not all.  A lot of the items listed in my Msconfig are duplicates. 

I will keep checking around, unless you can think of something.  :smileyhappy:

 

 

Usurperr

I believe he wanted to remove the unused (unchecked) entries from the Msconfig list. The reg key from the previous post ( startup, startupreg subkeys only list the unchecked items ). After deletion and a reboot those items have been removed on my machine (Msconfig list).

Here is the registry location of those entries:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\MSConfig

Under that key are startup folder, startupreg, etc. Delete them at your own risk.

Edit: I should have said 'open each folder and delete each entry at your own risk'.

Message Edited by chuket on 03-20-2005 12:27 AM

I can think of too good options. First is the long hard way of going into the registry and finding the location of startup items. I dont remember off hand where it is so I suggest we go to the 2nd choice unless someone else has a little more energy than me and post the full location.

choice 2 is downloading microsoft antispyware from www.microsoft.com and using the function within it to remove items. The great thing about this option is it will give you a description of what each item is.

once you have it installed click on advanced tools then on system explorer then startup items

those are just folders they arent the actual startup items. If you wanted to remove actual startup items. the location is.

the actual location is
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

I still suggest using ms antispyware atleast backup the registry first

First of all, thanks to all who responded to my request.  I followed Chuket's advice on the registry edits and successfully removed the unneeded items from Msconfig Startup.  Before I did anything, I created a new restore point and backed up the registry.

The only item that required more drilling to remove was:  cftmon.exe -- which is part of Microsoft Office XP.  I located this Microsoft Knowledge Base article to guide removal of this stubborn executable:  http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q282599

After restarting my computer several times, the Msconfig Startup list is clean of all unusable items.  Again, many thanks and thanks to Dell for providing us this great forum to help each other out.