Windows TIp: What's in your Startup?

The surest way to free up memory for your PC is to remove whatever is truly unnecessary from your Startup Configuration. No matter how much RAM you have in your PC, you can burn up a great deal of it before you even start to use it if you have a lot of programs and services loading into memory.



Take a look at how much Physical Memory you have.....



Right click on the Taskbar

Select Task Manager

Choose the Performance tab

Look at the Available memory in the Physical Memory box



If the Available memory is below 300K, your PC is probably running pretty slow. But, you can do something about this!





To understand what services you should keep or get rid of, you should start with the Black Viper. No, not the snake, but the single best resource on the web for understanding all of the Windows services running on your PC. This is the place to start to understand what is running on your PC.





Once you know what to keep and what to lose, you will need a handy, easy way to do this. Of course, there is always msconfig. However, I prefer WinPatrol, as it automatically notifies you when a program tries to add itself to your Startup Configuration and gives you the chance to permit or deny this.



With Black Viper and WinPatrol, you should be well on your way to more free memory and happier times!