System Configuration Utility

[Lance]

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does anyone know how i can edit the startup file that appears to be controlled only through the ''startup'' section in the dialogue box of win98SE's system configuration utility? it is what controls which additional applications are loaded alongside the basic OS. there are things in my start up file that either have been uninstalled [yet the commands to load them are still there] or multiple copies of the same filenames, which the system will try to load multiple times on boot-up unless they're unchecked. i want to clean up this mess, and make sure that my boot time is reduced to the minimum, and that the maximum amount of free ram i can have is in fact available. there seems to be no provision for editing beyond checking or unchecking already-existing checkboxes. i need to know the location of the actual file containing this data.

there is junk, like RealPlayer, which i vengefully extracted from my computer long ago [the helpful people who made or sold my computer had installed that along with many other things before ever putting the computer on the shelf], listed in the dialogue that isn't even installed on my computer any more. and McAfee VirusScan has 3 sets of two checkboxes that all reference exactly the same files. any help in clearing up this wormcan will be appreciated

___lance
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[Task]

Right-click on Start and Explore. You'll get the directory view of the Start Menu. You can then find the StartUp folder under that and hand-delete the shortcuts you don't want to run on startup. If you're set up for multiple users, then you'll have to do that for your account and for the All Users account.
Besides that, there's the Win.ini file in the main Windows directory where at the very top "load=" and "run=" should be blank after the = sign but sometimes stuff gets in there.
There's also a System.ini that has a whole [boot] section, and sometimes stuff can get in there. RegEdit is your friend if you know the name of the offending application/process you want to stop from coming up on boot and you thought you uninstalled it but it didn't fully uninstall... I assume you've run Ad-Aware recently... There are a couple good tools for editing this stuff, but I can never remember the name of any of them.

[xEik]

Messing with regedit is difficult and often dangerous for your system if you don't know exactly what you are doing. I've done it sometimes but it's a bit tricky.

I recommend regcleaner http://www.vtoy.fi/jv16/shtml/regcleaner.shtml . Is a small piece of software that allows to easily remove registry entries. It saves what you removed in a backup so if you experience problems on the next reboot you can always go back and try step by step which registry entries are 'necessary' and which ones aren't.

It gives the name of the software that used the entry so you can remove those of the software you uninstalled and you can configure what loads at start up as well. You can even erase entries from the 'windows uninstall dialog' that sometimes keep there even if the software has been uninstalled. The 'uninstall dialog' in XP automatically does but I recall having an unerasable entry in the dialog with my former 98 machine for months until I formated (Yes I'm one of those who format approximately every 18 months ;) ).

As far as I know the software is free.

PRACTICE LEADS TO PERFECTION !

[Lance]

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um... to begin my reply, as i mentioned, my OS is win98SE. the utility i refer to is accessed by clicking 'start' in the taskbar, then clicking 'run' and typing into the textbox that appears, the text string 'msconfig', and clicking the 'ok' button. there are 6 tabs shown in the dialogue, the center four of which refer to files, config.sys, autoexec.bat, system.ini, and win.ini. to the left is a non file-related tab, 'general'. to the right is another, 'startup'. this is the one i'm referring to. after doing considerable searching, i so far find that it does not seem to be attached to a file, as its lack of a file extension in the title would suggest. i am hoping that there is one somewhere, though.

i found nothing concerning the specific programs i need to affect in either win.ini, nor the even more unlikely system.ini. also nothing in autoexec.bat nor config.sys.

jay: the startup folder in the windows folder is unrelated to the selections in the startup tab of the 'system configuration utility'. the two sets of programs in the respective lists are completely different from each other.

this is a partial list of the programs listed in the dialogue:
DS clock
system tray
AIM
Real tray
McAfeeWebScanX [3 times]
Vshwin32EXE [also McAfee related][and also 3 times]
SoniqueQuickStart
K-Meleon loader
QuickTimeTask
LoadPowerProfile [3 times]

mostly auxiliaries rather than the main program. these things are installing themselves SOMEwhere without asking me, and i am pissed off.



both jay and xEik: it seems to me that the startup sequence controlled on the list i'm talking about would not be related directly to the registry, which i would prefer not to muck about with unless i really have to. are you sure that this is where i need to look? wouldn't more stuff be listed in the startup if it were directly related to the registry?
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[Task]

Ah, I see, that makes more sense. I was wondering what Startup you meant. You're looking at the process startup list in msconfig there, yeah, that's different. AFAIK, all that stuff can only be found in the registry, under the Software/Microsoft/Windows/Run key or something, probably under Local_Machine. I don't really use msconfig, but wouldn't just clearing those checkboxes fix your problem? Of course, what you probably want to know is how to get them out of your computer altogether, to which I'd imagine that you need either regedit (search for the key, find the path, delete the path, delete the key) or some leet haxxor toolz.

[Lance]

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thanks for the help, guys!

clearing that stuff off my machine is exactly what i want to do :D

thanks for the additional info, jay.

xEik, it looks like ive got to do as you say. i'll dl the proggie and learn things. no doubt there are other things in the registry i'd like to know about anyway. [thinks to self ''Courage, mon brave!] [yeah, i think to myself in French every once in a while ;) ]

uh... ''leet''? please explain to my ignorant self both what this means and its etymological derivation
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[xEik]

Regcleaner won't give you a complete view of what is in the registry, it's much simpler to use. It just lists 7 tabs.

Software: is useful to remove entries from software you no longer use.

Startup List: here you can choose what is loaded on boot.

Uninstall Menu: to get rid of items of the uninstall menu that won't go away even after uninstalling the associated software.

File types: associations of filetypes and programs (I don't really touch it).

New file: to chose which kind of file appear when right clicking and creating a new file (only to remove those you don't want)

Shell extensions: I don't use it much either, you could delete unused fyletypes, those related to uninstalled programs.

Backups: The one I appreciate the most. You get there everything you removed waiting for definitive removal. If things are OK after next boot then you can remove them. If something went wrong then it's a matter of try and error.

PRACTICE LEADS TO PERFECTION !

[Task]

Leet: Usually written as L33T, L33+, or 1337, it's an internet term, used as a replacement for the term "elite" and makes it only apply to computer hw/sw. "Leet warez" means "software only usable by power users/those who really know what they're doing" or "software made by a leet haxxor".

Although really, this is information/knowledge that you're better off not knowing. 8 P

[infoxicated]

It's also usually a glaring indication that the person you're chatting with is under the age/IQ of 15.

I'd get the piss taken out of me by the other kids because I could stay indoors in mid summer when I was 11 years old writing programs on my Spectrum. But hell, at least I was giving it a try instead of mixing letters with phonetic typoes and claiming I was a l33t h4><0r. :roll:

I must go and puke now, having done that. :wink:

[Lance]

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Jay: i thought it sounded like ''elite'', but figured that it only meant 'this is good stuff'. means more than that apparently. i think it's good to know more in general.

xEik: i installed 'reg cleaner' last night. it does indeed not list everything. i was surprised at the shortness of the registry list, and in particular, i discovered that in the startup list, it only shows what is checked. if you check the items so they show, then instruct regcleaner to remove them, all that happens, even after restarting, is that the boxes are unchecked, just as if i had done it with the system configuration utility. nothing on the list is actually removed. i still do not know where the list is stored so i can actually remove them.

[there were two keys in the register from RealNetworks, but these appear to be related to the RealDownload manager which was installed for about 10 minutes, then uninstalled]

using RealPlayer as my testcase, i tried another way to find this list or something relating to it: in searching for any remaining vestige of realplayer, there was no startup list found, but i discovered the applog folder within the actual windows folder. this had a realplayer folder containing 33 kb of statements/data. i don't know if these are mere history of activity or statements of current conditions or both or what. i'm reluctant to delete the folder because it may be a record of things that were done that have not been properly undone. i'm thinking i will do some research into applogs and their function today.
i was somewhat stunned to find an applog folder on the IE extension program, Bingo, a search and advert utility, that had over one MEGAbyte of statements/lines of data. this was even more surprising because the four Opera folders only had from 5 to 83 each. and i still have nine versions of Opera installed! and nothing more than that for those and all the ones which i used to have, but which were uninstalled, a total for current and ex of 17 versions. i use at least 3 versions of Opera every day, but i used Bingo about 4 times total, and it's been uninstalled for a long time. 85 percent of the Bingo data consisted of what appear to be computer memory addresses in the windows temporary IE index data file. the rest is references to addresses and section names of Bingo itself, plus addresses and dll files in the windows\system folder. this is either the most thoroughgoing piece of spyware, or the most incompetently written piece of functioning innocent software i've had on my computer. i had it before i had discovered AdAware, but AA never found anything related to it while Bingo was still installed. still, all those references to system dlls look worrisome :o

the Great Computer Purification Quest continues
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