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Tips and Tricks - 28th March 2006 by Charles LeBer

A DEMO OF STARTCOP. (A STARTUP CONTROLLER).

You can see what programs have been started when you bring up Windows. You can temporarily stop some programs, that you do not need to startup, from starting automatically. This will not remove your programs but only stop them from automatically starting. A more complete writeup of how to use this program can be found at:

http://www.mermeliz.com/startup_cop/index.htm

You can download Startup Cop form our website. It is the old free version. New versions are the only ones I can find on the internet now. They cost $7.95.

  • Download and install Startup Cop
  • Look at the green circles. They are all the programs that are running.
      YOU DO NEED THESE. DO NOT DISABLE THESE.
    • A firewall (Zone Labs Client)
    • A virus checker (AVG)
    • An antispyware (Windows Defender)
    • desktop ini
    • KernelFaultCheck
    • And any that have no name.
  • You have found some startup programs that you want to disable the starting of.
  • You could then:
    o Click on the “Startup program” to highlight it. Click on Detail to get some more information.
    o If you wish to disable the start, click “Disable”, then “Apply”, then “OK”
    o The next time you start Windows you will not start this program, but it will still be there.
  • If you wish to start that program, use “Start”, “All Programs” and find it there.
  • If you wish to have it start when you bring up Windows, run Startup Cop, look for the yellow circle, click on the program to highlight it, click on “Enable”, “Apply” and “OK”.
  • When you start Windows again it will be started.

GET RID OF DESKTOP CLUTTER

You can organise your shortcuts easily. Frank showed me this one. We have many photo shortcuts on the desktop and it could look better.
  • Right click on the wallpaper.
  • Choose “New” and “Folder”.
  • Right click on folder and choose “Rename”. Type in “Photo”.
  • Right click again on folder and choose “Properties”.
  • Then “Customize” and then “Change Icon”. Scroll along and find a camera.
  • Click on the camera icon, and click “OK”.
  • Click “Apply” and “OK”.
  • Now drag all the photo shortcuts into the Photo folder.

HOW TO STOP DIALLING OUT BY PROGRAMS.

You are working on your computer then a program dials out and starts downloading. If you want to control when the downloads run do the following.
  • Click on “Start”, choose “Control Panel”
  • Choose “Internet options”, then “Connections”
  • Choose “Never dial a connection”
  • Click “Apply” then “OK”

HOW TO SEE ALL PROGRAMS.

If you use the Classic View the programs are spread out across the screen and some on the right side may not be visible.
To fix this you can have them in one long column.
  • Right click on “Start”, then click on “Properties” and under Start Menu, choose “Start menu”, not Classic View
  • Click on “Customize”, then under Advanced choose “Display as a menu”.
  • Click on “OK”, then “Apply” and finally “OK”.
Charlie Le Ber