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Remove unneeded startup programs with CCleaner

Last modified: 2012-02-25 23:23:02 EET

Many programs tend to start background processes automatically before or after you log in to Windows. These processes take time to launch and they also consume memory (RAM). As a result, Windows starts and works slower. The effect is most notable on older PCs.

If CCleaner is not already running, open Start Menu by clicking on Start button or pressing Windows Key on keyboard.
Window XP users should choose All Programs, find CCleaner folder and click CCleaner:

Windows Vista and 7 users should type "ccleaner" into Search box and click CCleaner in search results.

As CCleaner needs administrative rights for cleaning temporary files and registry, User Account Control will pop up. Click Continue (Vista) or Yes (7).

Let's see an example for this. Click Tools on the left side of CCleaner and then click Startup tab. Make sure that the Windows tab is open.
This will open a list of programs that start automatically with Windows.
Click on a program that you know is not needed and then click Disable on the right. As you can see, this will just gray out the entry so that you can enable it again later, if needed.

Above are some well-known examples of programs that tend to waste memory and processor resources - Adobe Reader Speed Launcher, iTunesHelper and QuickTime Task. These programs are so-called "helpers" that make launching its main program faster. Well, you do not normally open Adobe Reader thousand times a day, or watch QuickTime videos on web all day - so opening these programs a few seconds slower is not a problem.
Another bunch here are automatic updating programs: Google Update, SunJavaUpdateSched and Adobe ARM. In case you are already using Secunia PSI, you can disable these with peace of mind.

• Google Update that comes with Google Chrome is really an overkill, because Google Chrome downloads updates automatically each time you launch it - no background process needed for this.
• Sun Java Update Scheduler is probably the slowest automatic update program in the whole Universe anyway, so using Secunia PSI is a much better alternative for keeping Java Runtime Environment up-to-date.
• Adobe ARM automatically updates Adobe Reader. If you are not using Secunia PSI, leave this one enabled.

But please do not go berzerk here! Disabling useful startup programs can make your Windows experience much worse, and not all startup programs are bad. For example, the MSC entry loads Microsoft Security Essentials here - you wouldn't want to be unprotected from viruses and other malware. Please disable only the items you know you do not need. If you know nothing about some entry, leave it as it is.

You can now restart your computer to see if Windows starts faster. If you accidentally disabled some necessary startup item, run CCleaner again, click the entry you need and then click the Enable button.

Some other well-known startup helpers or programs are:

• quickstart.exe in OpenOffice.org folder - a program that helps OpenOffice.org start faster
• CLIstart.exe in ATI Technologies folder - this refers to ATI/AMD Catalyst Contol Center and it is not needed unless you want to change monitor resolution or GPU configuration often.
• igfxtray.exe, hkcmd.exe and igfxpers.exe in Windows\System32 folder - for Intel graphics cards only: Notification bar icon, hotkey support and some persistence program. If you do not change resolution often or use shortcut keys for rotating screen, disable these.
• nvhotkey.dll, NvCpll.dll and nwiz.exe - for nVidia graphics cards only: hotkey support, overclocking support and nView support. If you do not use shortcut keys, overclock your graphics card or use nView features, disable these.

HKCU, HKLM, Startup Common, Startup User - what are these?

In the column named Key there are some abbreviations that might seem pretty cryptic at first. Let's go through these shortly:

• HKLM:Run - refers to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE entry in Windows Registry. This means that the program is launched for every user on your PC.
• HKCU:Run - refers to HKEY_CURRENT_USER entry in Windows Registry. This means that the program is launched only for your user account.
• Startup Common - refers to the Startup folder for all users in Start menu.
• Startup User - refers to the Startup folder for your user account in Start menu.

Internet Explorer and Scheduled Tasks

Since version 3.16, CCleaner also supports speeding up Internet Explorer launch and enabling or disabling Scheduled Tasks. Both ones should be treated with care - disabling necessary add-ons might impair Internet Explorer functionality, and disabling certain tasks might prevent automatic updating of important programs.

Managing Internet Explorer add-ons with CCleaner

Open the Internet Explorer tab of CCleaner's Startup Tools. Here is full list of all extensions, helpers and toolbars that are loaded with Internet Explorer. As described in the Internet Explorer 9 Troubleshooting article, too many toolbars and add-ons make the browser slow and often decrease stability.

First, close all Internet Explorer windows. Then, click an item and then click Disable to turn it off.

You can safely turn off Blog This, Messenger Companion and Research extensions - these are provided by Microsoft, but very few people actually use these. Also turn off any toolbar (and its helpers) you do not want - for example, to disable avast! WebRep toolbar completely, you must disable both its helper and toolbar add-ons.

You should not disable Adobe PDF Link Helper if you want to see Adobe Reader files within browser window, or Java helpers if you want to run Java applications (these are not JavaScripts!).

After disabling any items, open Internet Explorer and see if it starts and runs fine. You can later select any disabled add-on in CCleaner and click Enable to turn it back on.

Managing Scheduled Tasks with CCleaner

Scheduled Tasks are predefined jobs that run on specified days and times. Such tasks include automatic updating of programs or data, system performance tuning, automatic event notifications, etc. In most cases, all tasks are useful, therefore it is not recommended to fiddle around with them.

Open Scheduled Tasks tab and see if there are any items that are not needed. Click to select an item and then click Disable to turn the task off.

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