How to Speed Up Windows

Managing programs that are loaded at Windows startup time is essential to maintain the performance of your PC for two reasons. First of all, time spent by your PC to load every application or process adds to the entire length of the startup time. After using their PCs for a while, most Windows users feel it takes longer and longer to wait for Windows to finish its startup process. The reason is very simple, more and more installed programs fight to get loaded when Windows starts up. Secondly, most programs that are loaded at startup time stay on even though they are not actively providing you with any service. They simply take up computing resource by consuming both CPU processing power and computer memory. Without doing anything productive yet, your PC already has a "bad" start.

For users who feel less technical-capable, we recommend using startup management tools to address this issue. The free "Manage Startup" function offered as part of RegCure, a free PC performance scan application, works well as proven by our tests.

For users who are comfortable with managing PCs, disabling unwanted programs from being loaded when Windows starts up is an easy approach they can take to enhance PC performance. Start this process by opening the "System Configuration" window.

You can do so by go to the Start Button, type "msconfig" (without the double quotas) in the search box, and hit Enter. If you are running Windows XP, click on Run before typing "msconfig". The "System Configuration" window is displayed.

Click on the "Startup" tab to display a list of programs that are loaded when Windows starts, along with publisher names, executable file paths, and locations of registry keys or shortcuts that cause these application to run when PC boots up.

Clear the check box of a startup program to prevent it from being loaded on your PC's next boot. If you have chosen Selective startup on the General tab, you must either choose Normal startup on the General tab or select the startup item's check box to start it again at boot time.

Even to advanced PC users, some of these programs and progresses are unfamiliar. For instance, what is jusched.exe from Sun Microsystems, as show in the following screenshot? The best way to find more information about it is trying to search the process name from Google. According to research, it is a program update checking process installed with Sun Microsystem's Java suite and it is recommended that it should be left running at startup time to ensure updates for Java runtime is always checked and thus obtained.


Let's look at another example: ehTray.exe, labeled as part of the Microsoft Windows Operating System. Nevertheless, even a piece of Spyware can label itself as part of the Windows Operating systems. A search from Google indicated it is actually a system tray bar process for easy access to Windows Media Player. So disabling it won't cause the operating system any grief.

If your PC performance is very sluggish and you suspect that Windows has been compromised by spyware or even virus, most of which will be loaded at startup time, it best approach is to purchase an anti-spyware program to detect and clean spyware. Effective disinfection of spyware includes cleaning all registry entries and startup entries created by spyware and thus it increases performance of your PC.

After you finish clearing the checkboxes, click Ok and restart Windows to make the changes effective. Every step described in this article is reversible by going back to the "System Configuration" window and placing re-enable the checkbox next to a process that you want to load at startup time.