How to permanently get rid of items in the MSConfig tool

Q I have used Microsoft’s System Configuration tool to prevent certain things launching when my PC starts up, to speed it up. As a result, the list of unused items under the Startup tab is getting longer and longer.

I rather suspect that it won’t improve performance any further but is it possible to delete these unwanted items from the list? My PC runs Windows XP.
Ken Rye

A The use of Microsoft’s System Configuration utility (or MSConfig, as it’s often called) has been covered many times in the pages of Computeractive. To recap, it is intended as a troubleshooting tool that can prevent programs from launching when the PC starts up.

The idea is that it can be used to stop individual applications from launching temporarily: if their absence then improves performance or fixes some other problem, the user may choose to uninstall the culprit or otherwise look for an option within the program itself that prevents it launching at startup.

We cannot advocate clearing out the System Configuration utility’s Startup list just for the sake of it. Besides, as you suspect, removing entries that are already disabled will do nothing to improve the performance or stability of your PC. Indeed, if the technique that we’ll later outline is used to remove disabled entries where the related programs remain installed, it could even lead to problems – so be duly warned.

To reiterate, then, the correct way to remove unwanted entries from the System Configuration utility’s Startup list is to either uninstall the related application or look for a specific option in the application itself that disables launching at startup.

We can’t offer specific guidance for the latter, obviously, but to uninstall programs from Windows XP, click Start then choose Control Panel followed by Add or Remove Programs. Select the unwanted application from the list, click the Change/Remove button then follow the prompts to complete the task.

Once applications have been uninstalled in the prescribed manner, and after the PC is restarted, their entries should disappear from the System Configuration utility’s Startup tab. However, sloppy programming dictates that some entries will always remain – but they’ll be truly redundant and therefore should be safe to remove.

Doing so involves editing the Registry so if you’re a novice user, it’s probably best to forget all about it. But if you’re determined, click Start followed by Run, type regedit into the box and press Enter. Use the Export option on the File menu to create a backup of the Registry then click the plus (+) symbols in the left-hand pane to navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\MSConfig\startupreg.

The subkeys here represent items disabled in the System Configuration utility’s Startup tab: just right-click on one and choose Delete from the pop-up menu to remove it.