[john2004]

Hi everyone,

Sometimes my computer will not start right. The various program icons shown in the lower right hand corner of the task bar do not load, i.e., anti-virus, windows defender, comodo firewall, etc..

If I click on task manager or anything else, it may open but it takes a very very long time. It seems that the system is in conflict or simply out of memory. I then turn the computer off via the power button, re-start and everything works fine the second time. The problem is intermittent and does not happen on every start up. I have a feeling that it's related to ccleaner cleaning on reboot (possibly index dat files) or some program that loads automatically at start-up.

I'm using windows media center XP SP2 on an HP Pavillion A1520n computer. All Microsoft critical updates for SP2 have been applied.

I have attached a GIF image showing my running processes at startup, there are 56 processes running right at startup and that's with zero applications running. Does anything look suspicious in the process list ? It looks to me like it's just too much junk running at start-up, but I guess that's the way computers come new nowadays (makes you want to just build your own). Is it normal to have 56 processes running right at start-up without even manually starting any applications ?

Can anyone recommend a good startup manager that will let me uninstall or disable anything that is unnecessary ? I found two but have not run them yet ...

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/startupcpl.html

http://www.malwarebytes.org/startuplite.php

Is there anything wrong with permanently disabling a unwanted start-up program via msconfig ? I had heard that it was not proper to permanently disable unwanted start-up programs via msconfig as msconfig was mainly for diagnostic purposes. I also see you can disable things by going to control panel, administrative services, and then clicking the services icon. What is the proper way to disable unwanted start-up programs manually ?

I would appreciate any advice on making my computer run as lean as possible on start-up and any advice on the proper way to track down the source of the intermittent start-up problem.

Thanks
John

P.S. The very first process in the list which is hard to read is kdb.exe, you will probably have to zoom in to see all the processes clearly.

[BAZZA_UK]

Hi John 2004
the first process which you list as kdb.exe is actually kbd.exe and is a multimedia keyboard manager. which is required if you use multimedia keys.

I shall attach a couple of links which will help you to use MSCONFIG safely on your machine to thin down the startup list.
Just choose the windows you are using ie XP....there is a good link which lists 16,820 startup items....make sure that the item in your startup list is the same as in this list before removal....ie same spelling ect.....you can start by removing just a couple or even one at a time and upon reboot if everythings still working as it should then you can progress further.....think i have 3 startup items running in my list !!!
Hope this helps

http://www.netsquirrel.com/msconfig/msconfig_xp.html

http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php