ureadit

Have you ever installed a new gizmo on your PC, only to have it remind you every few days that you need to update to the newest release?  Sure, you want to be informed of new releases, but only when you really need to know about them, right?

 

For example, I recently purchased the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 webcam.  I really like the webcam; it’s the best I’ve ever purchased.  (Okay, did I plug it enough?)  The only problem is that once you install the driver, it gets into your system’s memory and interrupts you every few days, reminding you to check for updates.  Grrrrr… Hey, I love the webcam, and I’ve used it for both professional and personal applications, but I really, really, really get annoyed at these untimely reminders.  If it were only the webcam, I might tolerate it, but I get reminders from Apple iTunes, WinAmp, Google, ad museum.  When taken together, I can barely get a few hours of computer time in without an interruption.  Often these interruptions occur just before I hit the “Enter” key on my keyboard; this causes the reminder to take control of my PC and redirect me to a website where the vendor thinks he has carte blanche to sell me more stuff.

Enough is enough, already, I say.

So here’s one solution I discovered by accident one day.  It’s called, “msconfig”, and you can run it from the “Start” button on your PC:

• On an XP machine, hit the “Start” button then “Run…”, then enter “msconfig”.

• On a Vista machine, hit the “Start” button, and in the “Start Search” area, enter msconfig”.

This will take you to the “System Configuration” application, where you select the “Startup” tab.  Simply un-check the items you do NOT want to be run when the system starts up.  This will remove these items from the system tray and keep them from sucking up CPU time and bothering you when you don’t need it.  It may also help your PC boot up and shut down faster as well, because they don’t need to be installed into memory.  When you hit the “OK” button, you can choose to reboot the system right away or just wait until you reboot it yourself.

CAUTION: There are some land-mines in the “Startup” tab, so be careful not to un-check the important options, like the ones that say, “Microsoft Windows Operating System”.  This may seem obvious, but I thought I’d mention it just in case.

 

As you can see in the diagram, I’ve unchecked Logitech, iTunes, Adobe, QuickTime and WinAmp, among others.  I don’t need these applications sitting in my system tray on the odd chance that they will jump into action.  If I need to run them, I’ll start them myself, thankyouverymuch.  Personally, I can’t figure out why these applications want to hang out in the system tray to begin with; they probably get bored with nothing to do.

Have fun, with less interruptions!

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