Is your computer running slow?

The primary reason computers slow down over time is because of all the unnecessary tasks running in the background. A background task is a program that you can't see because it does not have a Window.

Get rid of this junk.  Just about every piece of software that you ever installed thinks that it is the sole reason for the existence of your PC.

For example:

• Microsoft Office background agent.  Do you really need that shortcut toolbar running all the time?
  
  
• RealPlayer which installs an agent in the background so that your music files will launch in one half of a second instead of two seconds and you'll be notified of any available updates.
  
  
• Quicktime Video player, same thing. Now you can launch a .MOV file one and a half seconds faster at the cost of slowing down everything else you do with your computer.
  
  
• Here's another tip. Your CD/DVD writing software does not need to be running 24/7. Get rid of these background tasks and start your CD/DVD writing software when you're ready to burn a CD/DVD.
  
  
• The list goes on and on and on and ...
  
  
• Get Rid of it all and take back control of your computer.

Use this FREE program to administer and block programs that launch themselves on startup. If any software that you need stops working then you can just reinstall that single software program or simply re-enable it.

I have 37 items in my startup list!  Only five of which are enabled -- this includes my Antivirus, AntiSpyware programs and the Starter program itself.  It makes a huge difference in the performance of my PC.

Starter by Codestuff

You can download this program here.  http://www.softwareblueprint.com/Newsletter/04ControlStartup/StarterSetup.zip

Right click on any of the startup items and select 'Pacman's Portal Startups.' This will take you to an online database description of the startup item's purpose and publisher. This database will also tell you if it is safe to disable the startup item.

Note that the last item in my startup list is 'Starter' itself.  I did this by copying a link to the Starter program into my Start/All Programs/Startup menu folder.  This way every time I logon to my computer Starter runs and if there are no suspicious new changes I just close the Starter program.