2 Questions

[Druid]

Ok, this girl in my dorm's laptop is taking forever to start up and load all apps. She has like a 5400 rpm hdd, so the time it takes for windows to actually start seems normal. After she logs on though, stuff just keeps loading for a long time and it takes like a year to open anything up. I dled pc decrapifier and it got rid of some programs. How do I know what other programs I can get rid of off the startup so that everything loads up the way it should but in the least amount of time? You know, I want everything to look normal with the correct color scheme and everything, not like diagnostic startup. I've already disabled a few things, but I want to get everything I possibly can that could be making it so slow. She did a reformat without using a disc by pressing f11 before windows started, so it shouldn't have anything like a virus on it causing the slowdown.

Anyway, for the 2nd question, how do you find out what exactly pc decrapifier took off? She had a 2nd battery life indicator on the little windows bar on the bottom of the desktop that she likes better than the little standard one, and I need to find out what program it was that was uninstalled. I know it was none of the programs I disabled from startup in msconfig because I tried reinitializing all of them and it still wasn't there.

 

[Osiris]

You can get ride of everything in the start except the AV or any essential programs needed.

 

[Druid]

You can get ride of everything in the start except the AV or any essential programs needed.

Like yeah, and what would those essential programs be? I want to know how to identify them.

And yeah, how would I find those programs pc decrapifier removed?

 

[myr707]

Look up your startup entries here - Startup Programs Database

 

[Osiris]

Post a screenshot and I will tell you what can be removed.

Not sure about the other program.

 

[Jayce]

This scenario can be very situation dependent.

Understand something - you're talking about disabling startup programs, not processes. They are two different things. Processes are needed to make the system functional. Programs are needed for the user's sake. I personally turn EVERYTHING off on startup in msconfig because I hate anything loading when I boot up. Just give me my desktop. That's it.

Any other essential programs depend upon the user's situation. Does this girl NEED something to auto start? That's the key question. The reason it was suggested above to leave the anti virus on startup was simply for security reasons - one that I also recommend to leave. But everything else I keep disabled on my systems and I've never had any issues. Then again, I don't need to auto-run certain programs either.

 

[Osiris]

This scenario can be very situation dependent.

Understand something - you're talking about disabling startup programs, not processes. They are two different things. Processes are needed to make the system functional. Programs are needed for the user's sake. I personally turn EVERYTHING off on startup in msconfig because I hate anything loading when I boot up. Just give me my desktop. That's it.

Any other essential programs depend upon the user's situation. Does this girl NEED something to auto start? That's the key question. The reason it was suggested above to leave the anti virus on startup was simply for security reasons - one that I also recommend to leave. But everything else I keep disabled on my systems and I've never had any issues. Then again, I don't need to auto-run certain programs either.

Very good explanation

 

[Druid]

Ok thanks.

Is it possible to search for modified (removed) programs for a certain date like on xp? Like I knew I was always able to find new files or programs that were added on a certain date, but I don't know if it will work finding removed programs. Either way, I don't know how to do this in vista. Could anyone explain? She really wants that 2nd little battery icon back. It would be annoying to have to do a system restore. I don't know when her last point is.

 

[myr707]

I have no idea how you could go about getting it back but see if any of these are "the one" or if she'll like one of these:
Osiris Development - BatteryBar, the most accurate battery meter for Windows
Power Meter Plus Endpoint
BatteryCare
BattStat - Battery Status monitor and power management freeware for Windows Vista/XP/2000