how do I set my computer to......?

ctmom05

Member
There's a couple of items that I would like to stop from loading automatically when I boot up my computer(a couple of messengers), how do I do that? I have Windows Vista on my computer.
 

mstang67chic

Going Green
If you're talking things like Yahoo's messenger, there is a choice under Messenger (at the top of the main box for it) that is called Connection Preferences. It should give you the option of either logging in automatically everytime you boot up or logging in manually. On others it may be under Settings or something similar. Either way, there should be a spot in there where you can set it to connect in whatever way you want it too.
 

ctmom05

Member
Thank you ladies, now I have actually learned a couple of new things today :) I am a technophobe and am adjusting to a new computer and Windows Vista.
 

Suz

(the future) MRS. GERE
Okay, here's a question.....I have a cable connection and a Dell easy child that is several years old. Even though I have cable, I use AOL.

What programs do I need to have on Start up? Despite the cable connection some days it takes 20 minutes (!) for this thing to start up and pop up the AOL log in screen. At work it takes seconds. At one point I looked to see what it was loading on start up and there were a ton of things there but I have no idea what needs to be there and what doesn't.

Help!

Suz
 

Lothlorien

Active Member
I made a mistake. I am going to pm Suz and CTmom with the correct answer. If anyone else wants this info...let me know. It's not that complicated, but if you click on the wrong thing, you can really mess up your computer.
 

flutterby

Fly away!
Suz, if your easy child I'm assuming you're running Windows XP. XP is made to boot with nothing running in startup (I dont know about Vista because I dont like Vista and am avoiding it like the plague).

To access the Startup menu in XP, Click on the Start button, click on Run and type in: msconfig and press enter. Then click on the Startup tab.

You can deselect anything you dont want to run on startup...everything if you want to. (I leave my firewall and antivirus in startup, but that's it.) Click Apply and then reboot (cause all those programs that run on startup are still running in the background slowing your computer down).

When you reboot, you'll get a message saying you've made some changes, blah, blah, blah. Just click the box next to 'don't show me this again' and click OK.

20 minutes is a really long time, though. Sounds like you have other maintenance to do on the computer, too. I would clean up temporary internet files and run defrag, too.
 

flutterby

Fly away!
And Suz - if you have cable, AOL is working just as a web browser. You don't have to use it. You can use IE (versions prior to version 8 are slow...but if it's an old computer and that slow I don't recommend upgrading to version 8...it killed my parent's computer...mine's newer and not slow and it works fine, but they make you work at the download and install) or download Mozilla Firefox, which is very simple.

Clear as mud? :tongue:

You might also try taking the tower apart and cleaning out dust and animal fur. You'd be amazed how much that effects the computer. (Just make sure the computer is unplugged first.)
 
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