A couple of times a year, I check the list of autostart programs in Windows XP's System Configuration Utility (aka Msconfig) to see if any apps that I don't need to start automatically have snuck onto the roster.
The older my PC gets, the more important it is to avoid slowing down XP's start-ups as the OS loads programs I'll probably never use.
(Note that the $30 WinPatrol, the free CCleaner, and many other Windows utilities can be used to prevent applications from starting with Windows.
Here, I'm focusing on the tools built into XP. Also, the Software Explorer component of Vista's Windows Defender security application gives you a clearer view of the OS's autostart applications. I'll describe that program tomorrow.)
Msconfig-uring out CTFmon
To view your autostart apps in Msconfig, press the Windows key (or Ctrl-Esc), press R, type msconfig.exe, and press Enter. The last time I checked the list, I noticed an entry for CTFmon.exe. This is an extension for Microsoft Office XP, 2003, and 2007 that enables speech and handwriting recognition, as well as other language functions. Unchecking the program's option in Msconfig does no good because it returns to the list automatically the next time Windows loads.
Microsoft's support site describes a convoluted, multistep process for removing the program from your start-up list. You begin by deactivating it in Microsoft Office via the Control Panel's Add or Remove Programs applet, then you change settings in the Regional and Language Options, and finally, you delete two DLLs manually from the Run box.
"There's gotta be a better way," I thought, as I read through Microsoft's instructions. There is. Gerhard Schlager's CTFMON-Remover does the trick in a fraction of the time. Simply unzip the download file, double-click CtfmonRemover.exe, and select Deactivate CTFMON.EXE. Step through the short wizard, and the program is removed automatically (the option "Is the CTFMON.EXE installed?" switches from a green "Yes" to a red "No.")
The free CTFMON-Remover utility rids Windows' list of autostart apps of this little-used Microsoft Office extension.
(Credit: Gerhard Schlager)
Pruning your list of autostart apps
Uncheck the programs on XP's autostart list that you don't need to have on all the time. Candidates include iTunes, Adobe Acrobat, and utilities for cameras, printers, PDAs, and other peripherals you rarely use. (I noticed that my system was loading control programs for a printer I replaced six months ago.)
Of course, an entry such as the one on my PC for a discarded printer indicates that you're overdue in uninstalling the program altogether, either by using its own uninstall option off the Start menu, or via Add or Remove Programs.
If an entry in your autostart list is unidentifiable, enter the name in your favorite Web search engine, and look for information about it. That's how I found out that I didn't need "point32.exe", which is for Microsoft's IntelliMouse, nor "nwiz.exe", Nvidia's program for "enhancing" my graphics display with features I'll never use.
Just be careful not to uncheck the entry for an autostart program that your system needs to function properly. Keep the entries for your antivirus, firewall, and other security programs checked. Also leave active the listings for your network and Windows itself, as well as for printer and other peripherals you use frequently. When in doubt, leave it checked, though a Web search should shine a light on any mystery file names you find there.
Msconfig craziness
Whenever you make a change in Msconfig, the program prompts you to restart your system. To prevent the message from popping up in the future, check "Don't show this message again" before you click either Restart or Exit without restarting. The next time you start your PC, you'll see a message stating that the System Configuration utility started in "Diagnostic or Selective Startup" mode. Check "Don't show this message or start up the System Configuration Utility when Windows starts," reopen Msconfig, press the General tab, and select Normal Startup > OK > Exit without restart.
Tomorrow: Pare your list of autostart applications in Windows Vista via the Software Explorer.
I had occasion to open the C:Windows folder on my old XP machine, and was immediately struck by the number of folders whose names began "$NtUninstall". They were from several hundred kilobytes to 10 megabytes in size, and there were more than 150 of these bad boys just taking up space on my hard drive. There were also a few multi-megabyte files whose names began with "$MSI31Uninstall" or "$NtServicePackUninstall". Some of these folders dated back to when I bought the machine in 2003.
If Explorer won't show you the contents of the C:Windows folder, click Tools > Folder Options > View, select Show hidden files and folders in the Advanced settings window, and click OK.
These uninstall folders are intended to roll back the system in the event of a Windows patch gone bad. Obviously, the OS updates they refer to had done no harm to the machine, which is working just fine. The PC's 30GB hard drive has 5GB of free space, which is slightly less than the 20 percent margin many experts recommend to ensure a smooth-running drive. Clearly getting rid of these unnecessary patch fixers would do my system good. To play it safe, I retained the few uninstall folders that were less than a month or two old.
Make room on your hard drive by deleting old Windows update uninstall folders, but play it safe by retaining the most recent ones.
Unfortunately, the files aren't listed by date, and if you click Date Modified in Explorer's Details view, the uninstall folders get mixed up with other folders in C:Windows. Rather than selecting the uninstall folders one by one, I clicked the first one I wanted to delete, then Shift-clicked the last one, and finally Ctrl-clicked the few recent ones I wanted to keep to deselect them.
The fixes will still be listed in XP's Add or Remove Programs Control Panel applet. To remove their entries, open the program, check Show updates at the top of the window, scroll to Windows XP - Software Updates, select each one at a time, and click Remove. You'll get an error message telling you the file has already been deleted. Click Yes and move on to the next one. Just be sure not to accidentally uninstall an update that you haven't already deleted. If the Software Update Removal Wizard opens rather than the "already deleted" error message, click Cancel.
Play it safe by keeping the folders in the Recycle Bin for a week or so. If you experience problems with a Windows patch for which you've deleted the uninstall folder, simply locate it in the Recycle Bin, right-click it, and choose Restore to return it to the C:Windows folder.
I found only two of these patch-uninstall folders in the C:Windows folder on my Vista PC, both of which were empty. I don't know if that means Microsoft figured out a way to safeguard its Vista fixes without cluttering up your hard drive, or if the update-uninstall folders are now stashed somewhere else.
Tomorrow: Using OpenOffice.org's Writer app in a Microsoft Word world.
Greer Park in upscale Palo Alto, Calif., isn't what you would call dirty.
Nor is it sprayed with graffiti, broken down, rusty or disheveled. In fact, nothing on the surface would indicate the need for a concentrated effort by Google employees and friends participating in Google's first International Cleanup Weekend, an endeavor born in part to publicize the MyMaps application and KML, the XML-based markup language used to make Google's interactive Web maps.
Yet here were eight of us, stooping to harvest bottle caps, gum wrappers and cigarette butts from the tanbark and grass at 9:30 a.m. on a glorious Saturday morning in this wealthy San Francisco suburb.
A chance discovery turned us from the ground cover to the bushes, where the real pay dirt lay. Yi Wei, a 21-year-old Google user experience designer, dragged an abandoned couch cushion from the hedges lining the park.
"There's trash everywhere," he said. "You just have to look for it."
The search proved more fruitful after that, with the foliage yielding beer bottles, metal grates, plastic bags, food wrappers, a dirty diaper, lost sports balls and two long metal poles that looked like supports for a soccer goal. Plastic bags began to fill.
If you hadn't heard much about Google International Cleanup Weekend on October 13 and 14, here's why. The loosely organized event sprang from summer intern So Jieun Oh's tutorial of a beach cleanup that was created to teach users how the KML markup language can make interactive, multimedia map mashups.
The Google Earth Outreach team, which helps sell non-profits and businesses on using Google products, glommed onto the idea of using MyMaps to let small groups of employees coordinate local cleanups and then share photos and video posted to their maps.
"The logical extension of that is, why not do it for everyone in the world," said Vaughn Tan, 27, an Associate Product Marketing Manager on the Google Earth Outreach team.
Google encouraged small groups to make a local difference.
(Credit: CNET Networks)"It's cool thinking that...after this weekend the world will be a little cleaner," added Cathy Tang, 22, the product marketing manager in charge of the International Cleanup Weekend Web site.
Google counted more than 300 maps spanning six continents on the event's site. Publicity through organizations like Americorps, Idealist.org and The Scout Association in the U.K. helped populate the master map.
There's no good way to know how many events actually took place without meticulous counting--autumn storms may have postponed some events, like Tan's October 14 cleanup in San Francisco's Dolores Park.
To see MyMaps at work, visit my team's cleanup map; also view my photo gallery above.
Google has just announced the latest project to bubble up out of Google Earth--International Cleanup Weekend, a coordinated global effort taking place Saturday, October 13, and Sunday, October 14, 2007, at locations throughout the world.
Who's doing the organizing? You are, naturally, using Google Maps to plot cleanup sites.
What began as an internal corporate eco-venture for local involvement has now been embraced by communities in 15 countries. Google Earth's outreach team is asking groups of six to 10 people to pick a modest project close to home, do it, then share their accomplishments by posting photos and videos to the team's Google Map.
Individuals can coordinate their own events or try to contact Google's partner organizations, like Idealist.org, Sierra Club, and The Scout Association in the U.K., which are urging their members to form local projects.... Read more
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