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Solve : Windows Explorer window is running each time I log in?

Answer» <html><body><p>Quote from: jason2074 on July 29, 2010, 07:31:37 PM</p><blockquote>Msconfig was the way out all along... <br/></blockquote><br/>Wrong.<br/>MSconfig should only be used as a diagnostic tool...<br/>Never as to making permanent system changes...Amen Quote from: patio on July 29, 2010, 08:08:43 PM<blockquote>Wrong.<br/>MSconfig should only be used as a diagnostic tool...<br/>Never as to making permanent system changes...<br/></blockquote><br/>I've always believed this. But I've come to realize this is no longer true. With Windows 9x's msconfig, it would actually <a href="https://interviewquestions.tuteehub.com/tag/make-249948" style="font-weight:bold;" target="_blank" title="Click to know more about MAKE">MAKE</a> itself startup with the computer and give you a prompt saying you were in "diagnostic" mode.<br/><br/>Now, the option buttons presented on the first tab of msconfig don't correspond to any special modes that it forces windows to run in.<br/><br/>In fact, they only correspond to what is checked in the other tabs.<br/><br/>if there are any unselected items, msconfig says you are in "selective startup" mode. It doesn't matter wether these items were moved by another program or by msconfig itself. the checkboxes beneath them reflect how "selective" it thinks your startup is.<br/><br/>the "Normal startup" will be checked if every single item is checked. Diagnostic startup unchecks everything.<br/><br/>the option buttons there are merely "shortcuts" to uncheck and check certain items.<br/><br/>"So" you say, "how does it allow you to check items off in the startup tab if it deletes them when you uncheck them?" well, quite simple! it makes a record of anything it disables in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\MSConfig.<br/><br/>Therefore, the only reason not to use msconfig to make permanent changes would be if you don't like a few extra bytes being used up.<br/><br/>Another point of note: many of the "alternatives" being suggested are not supported on many newer operating systems, specifically, for example, any 64-bit variant. Take the Startup Control Panel: it's entirely unaware of the fact that all it's accesses to the RUN keys are in fact being redirected, via <a href="http://bc-programming.com/blogs/2009/12/windows-x64-fileregistry-redirection/">registry redirection</a>, to actually point to values in wow6432node.<br/><br/>Of course, this will find all the RUN keys created by 32-bit programs (who, when saving their values were also redirected to wow6432node. However, the "actual" run key will be left entirely unexamined.<br/><br/>Do we really want to switch people away from a tool that understands the implications of this redirection and can properly enumerate the appropriate keys, or do we want to continue to make what I now believe are outdated claims about how it works based on the caveats of it's Windows 9x version?<br/><br/>So many people say "don't use MSConfig". <br/><br/>But can anybody give a good reason ? That's what I was trying to do- find out why we shouldn't be using it, but I couldn't find any reason at all.<br/><br/><br/><br/>So, may i know what was the suggested solution to the windows start-up? Please "msconfig" is perfectly safe to check, uncheck startups, however for an average person it IS a dangerous area, because there are many other options there and if not understood correctly and <a href="https://interviewquestions.tuteehub.com/tag/played-2211668" style="font-weight:bold;" target="_blank" title="Click to know more about PLAYED">PLAYED</a> with, the computer may end up as not bootable, in a loop, or stuck in safe mode.<br/><br/>There are countless of free programs, like Autoruns, Startupcop, QuickStartup and others, where you can play with your startups in safe manor.Thanks a lot, Patio, BC_Programmer, its a worthwhile to learn reading about suggestions, <a href="https://interviewquestions.tuteehub.com/tag/comments-11906" style="font-weight:bold;" target="_blank" title="Click to know more about COMMENTS">COMMENTS</a>, opinions thru your experiences. I'm learning and I've learned a lot in this FORUM by participating and <a href="https://interviewquestions.tuteehub.com/tag/accepting-846758" style="font-weight:bold;" target="_blank" title="Click to know more about ACCEPTING">ACCEPTING</a> mistakes and learning from it. <br/>Thanks Mastermind Broni . I actually have a start-up tool and looking at it and comparing with the msconfig start-up tab seems relatively almost the same . Only thing i dont i know is the impact of unchecking a running service from the startup tool with the msconfig startup tab. And to be more clear about the issue of binghamjc is, does your suggestion about unchecking on startup tab cleared his problem?Yes, but what I asked him to do was ONLY for testing purposes.<br/>You can't run computer with the above settings for long, because there is no protection.<br/>Talking about startups, any non-Microsoft startup is safe to disable, unless you really need it as a startup.<br/>One exception - in case of laptop, don't disable any keyboard, or touchpad entries.Yes i remember clearly about not disabling keyboard on laptop as you previously posted. And the services for microsoft disabled(Startup) is what you mean by protection, right? No, you don't disable any Microsoft services.<br/>By protection, I mean your AV program and a firewall.Ok i understand. Thanks Mastermind Broni. For that I'll treat you for lunch <br/>Gotta go... Lunch time.You're very welcome There has been a lot of speculation in this thread about what was and was not the solution to my problem.<br/>Here is my take on it.<br/>Using msconfig pointed me in the right direction, but it was not the final solution, and as Broni pointed out, it was intended to be a diagnostic tool. From my point of view that is all that I used it for was a diagnostic tool. Furthermore, when I brought the system up in Selective Startup mode there were warnings to that effect, that is not something that I would like to have occur each time I log in. That would be at least as annoying if not more so than the original problem. What it did do was point out that there was something in the startup list that was the source of the problem.<br/>The tool that I used to determine what in the startup list was the source of the problem and remove the two HP programs from the startup list was WinPatrol, there may be others that provide similar capabilities, I am not familiar with them. I have been running WinPatrol on both my systems for at least the past 5 years and am familiar with its operation and comfortable using it. Its main functionality is as a system monitor looking for changes to critical system resources and alerting me so that changes do not occur without my knowledge.<br/>I chose to use WinPatrol to continue my trouble shooting because using it did not require that I reboot the system, only that I log off and back on to test the effects of removing various programs from the list.<br/>In my estimation using msconfig was akin to using a 4 pound sledge hammer to do the job of a tack hammer.<br/>So thank you all for your help in finding the solution to this annoyance.You're very welcome BC i'll give you kudos for what you stated...<br/>However i will prefer to stay old school on this one...<br/>Withe services.msc being available (which should be the suggestion in these cases) and apps like Mike Lin's Startup CPL i see no reason to use msconfig to make permanent changes...<br/>Reason being if you change anything in services.msc as opposed to msconfig the system will still boot but provide an error massage and you can recover from that...<br/>That is not the case when msconfig is used...<br/>Better approach for newbies and i'm stickin to it...Quote from: patio on July 30, 2010, 02:31:28 PM<blockquote>BC i'll give you kudos for what you stated...<br/>However i will prefer to stay old school on this one...<br/>Withe services.msc being available (which should be the suggestion in these cases) and apps like Mike Lin's Startup CPL i see no reason to use msconfig to make permanent changes...<br/>Reason being if you change anything in services.msc as opposed to msconfig the system will still boot but provide an error massage and you can recover from that...<br/>That is not the case when msconfig is used...<br/>Better approach for newbies and i'm stickin to it...<br/></blockquote><br/>I agree, I never use msconfig myself for anything whatsoever, and it's certainly not something users should just go through flipping checkboxes seemingly at random to fix an issue, or editing the boot configuration- it's a dangerous program for a curious person to start experimenting with, and I 100% agree, the various other tools (like autoruns, and the startup CPL (on 32-bit systems, anyway) as well as the actual OS functionality to disable/enable services (services.msc), are much much better.<br/><br/>What I am arguing against os more the stigma that seems to imply that it's not a preferred choice because of some unsaid detail about how it works, rather then the true reason, which is that the adventurous users are likely to get burned.<br/><br/>On the other hand, adventurous users are likely to get themselves into trouble regardless of the program, but at least most of them stick to the "startups" concept rather then having tabs to modify their core boot configuration.<br/><br/>At it's core, the real problem is that there was some decision by somebody to add these countless ways that programs can startup automatically. I mean, at least 6 or so registry keys, even more on 64-bit systems, several ini files that are long forgotten but still parsed, task scheduler, and mercy knows what else. A single startup folder would have certainly been sufficient- you want to see your startups, you just open that folder. no hassle with any tools. But no... apparently companies didn't like this. Win 3.1 had pretty much two places- the startup folder and run= and load= lines in win.ini. That was more then enough. But with win95 was released I guess their excitement over the registry overflowed into a number of new "infection vectors" (As far as I'm concerned, aside from a few necessary driver satellite DLL files (very few, I might add) anything that puts itself in there is an infection. (except malware programs, whose function necessitates being there) Nobody asks "how can I get realplayer to start with my system" because nobody wants it to. *censored*, nobody wants realplayer, they usually get it by accident. A PDF reader doesn't need a "boot loader" program that precaches the main executable. How often do people read PDFs, truly? certainly not enough to notice that they can start Adobe Reader over a half second faster if they let this program run in the background. If the people want it, they'll <a href="https://interviewquestions.tuteehub.com/tag/ask-364170" style="font-weight:bold;" target="_blank" title="Click to know more about ASK">ASK</a> for it. I know the feeling that causes this and I've done the same. "wow this program is great I'm sure people will want X" and I add it, then I go back to that program a few months later and chastise myself for such management-level thinking.<br/><br/></body></html>


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