People frequently tell me about how snappy and fast their Windows computer is when it is new, but it seems to slow down and get sluggish over time as they use it. That this happens is why so many people recommend periodically reinstalling Windows, as absurd as that sounds.

There is a good reason why this slowdown occurs. Many (most) software packages that you will install will insert their own code in the startup sequence, causing something to happen when you start the computer, and often causing something to run and suck up CPU and resources whenever the computer is running. After awhile, this causes your startups to take a long time and causes your computer to appear sluggish because it is running all this crap.

What is this software that gets installed? Is it important? Usually, it is nothing you want or need, and you are far better off keeping it from running. For instance, many packages will load code that causes their package to be partly loaded at startup. This way, when you click on the package to start it, it starts up faster and you don't have to wait as long. This is nice when you click on the package, but slowing down your boot up and tying up system resources all the time when you are not running the package makes it not worth having.

A lot of the software that is added to your startup will be used in one fashion or another to monitor what you are doing on the system. Sometimes there are legitimate (but very seldom compelling) reasons to do this; more commonly it is just a way for the software vendor to obtain information about your or your system that he really doesn't need to have. Commonly, this type of software will automatically check the vendor's website for software upgrades which then will be automatically applied (unless you stop this behavior), and just incidentally certain characteristics of your system will be reported to the vendor at that time.

While automated updates can be a very convenient feature, it is unnecessary for most packages to check every time you start up (though you might want this with anti-virus and anti-spyware packages) and the resources these programs hog make them not worth having.

Other software packages have far less benevolent reasons for running their code in your startup, and in the vast majority of cases you are ahead of the game by just not letting it happen.

Windows XP provides a valuable tool named msconfig for managing your startups. The difficulty lies in understanding what this tool is telling you.

You start msconfig by going to Start->Run, then typing in "msconfig" (without the quotes). A requester comes up with six tabs on it that let you configure what will run on your system. You would do well to research this tool and learn how it works (try the Help button, but the information it provides isn't terribly helpful). For this article, we are only interested in the Startup tab.

When you click on the Startup tab, you will see a list of programs along which startup location sets them to start (only some are set in the startup folder; most will be set in the Registry, making them hard to find). If the checkbox is checked, this one is set to start.

Now you have the job of figuring out which is which, and disabling those that are useless. For this, use a search engine. Enter the name of the program into the search box, and then visit some of the sites that come up. You will quickly identify sites that exist to tell you what these programs are, thus enabling you to decide whether to keep them or not. Generally, if the program belongs to Windows, let it start. If the program doesn't belong to Windows and doesn't belong to something like an antivirus program, don't let it start. If the program controls a piece of hardware in your system, let it start. If the program is anything else, don't let it start. There are exceptions, but if you stick to these rules, you won't go too far wrong and your system will be a lot faster both in startup and in running.

For example, as I look at the startup tab in one of my XP systems, I see a program called PRISMSTA. When I use a search engine to find out about this, I learn that this is a program for the wireless network card in the computer. So I leave it checked so that it can run.

But I also see programs named qttask and realsched. These programs are associated (respectively) with Quicktime and Realplayer. Qttask is a program that doesn't need to run which checks for Quicktime updates whenever I start the system. So, I uncheck it in msconfig, and I also tell Quicktime itself to not check automatically for updates (this is someplace in the Quicktime preferences stuff). Realsched is a CPU and resource hog that by itself bogs down a lot of computers. It doesn't need to run, and is supposed to schedule audio and video files to run, as well as checking automatically for updates. Uncheck it in msconfig, and you gain back a lot of your system performance.

After configuring what is allowed to startup, reboot the computer to clean it out and improve your performance. Then, run msconfig again to make sure that nothing reinserted itself in your startup (yes, there are obnoxious programs that will do that).

Now, there are some nice third-party utilities which do a better job than msconfig at managing the startup programs. For many years I have used Startup Cop which was a free download from PC Magazine. Startup Cop works with most versions of Windows from Win98 on (unlike msconfig which is XP only). I have not replaced the copy of Startup Cop that I use with anything later because I like Startup Cop, but PC Magazine is now up to Startup Cop Pro2, for which they charge $7.97, or free if you already subscribe to their utility library. The original Startup Cop walks you through the process of removing undesired startup programs, allows you to enable or disable them, and enables you to remove them permanently from the startup list (msconfig won't do this and you won't be able to remove them unless you are willing to edit your registry). I offer no opinion about the latest version of this utility but, if it enhances the original, it is worth the money.

Most people simply don't understand the need to take control of what starts up on their computer, but this is where the majority of spyware gets started and, even if the system is kept clean of spyware, this is where all the junk that slows the computer down gets started. By periodically running msconfig (or some other tool) and judiciously selecting what is allowed to run, you will keep your system a lean, mean computin' machine!

About the Author: Jim Locker is a technical guy who has done a lot of real estate investing and landlording. The experiences he writes about and advice he gives are either first hand, or in answer to specific questions posed by others. He is commonly known as jiml8 around the internet.