The 'System Configuration' utility or 'msconfig.exe' can be a very powerful tool in improving your system performance if used correctly, especially on PCs that have a lot of unnecessary programs that load up on startup.
It is important to note that even if a program does not appear on the taskbar, or in the 'Quick Launch' bar, it still can be running in the background of your PC as a program or a service, consuming resources, memory and processing power. I will write a post to follow, on how to use the 'TaskBar' effectively, soon. This utility will help you monitor which programs are consuming the most resources on your PC.
To access the 'System Configuration' utility, click on 'Start' from the taskbar, and then 'Run', Vista users can use the 'Start Search' box if they haven't got the 'Run' command enabled on the 'Start Menu'.
Type "msconfig" into the 'Run' or 'Start Search' box. This will then bring up the 'System Configuration' utility
Now that the utility is open, one of the best options you can use with ease is the 'Startup' tab. On this tab, you will see a list of programs that are installed on your PC. Here you can untick any programs, that you do not want to be launched at startup. This may be confusing at first because you may not recognise some of the items in the list.
This is effective in improving performance of your PC, as you can untick programs that you do not use, or would not want when the PC starts up, which reduces the time it takes for Windows to load up.
If you are unsure of what a particular item is, check the 'Command' column, this will inform you of what the program executable is, the ".exe", you can search for this program in 'Google' and that can normally turn up the nature of the program.
Warning: Unticking items in this list can be useful with programs you don't want running all the time. However you should use caution, as you don't want to untick any programs that protect or help your computer such as anti-virus or firewall software.
This utility is most helpful when you have several programs that you don't use all the time when you run your PC, such as Business applications loading up, when you are using your PC in your leisure time and have to wait a while before all there unnecessary programs load up.