Often on Fox News, I see commercials warning viewers that if their computer is running slow, they may have TONS of viruses. While this may be true in some cases, a more likely one is that you have dozens of programs starting when your computer boots up. These programs usually run in the background, without your knowledge, using valuable memory that could make programs you actually want to use run slower.
A free solution that I found is Soluto: Anti-Frustration Software. This product allows you to see all of the programs that start up when your computer boots. It offers three categories for these applications: No-Brainer (things you can usually remove from the boot sequence), Potentially removable (which is only suggested for ‘advanced users’) and Cannot be removed with Soluto (which are things you should stay away from).
After you first install the program, it will ask you to reboot your computer so that it can analyze all the programs that start. After it analyzes (which can sometimes take a few minutes depending how slow your computer is and how many programs boot up), it will show you a list of the categories of programs.
For each of the applications in each of the categories, the program will give you a description of the program, a recommendation and advice about what OTHER users did for THEIR computers. Under “advanced,” it will give you more information, if you’re curious.
Now, I check my boot applications every month or so, but even so, I found that I was able to trim 20 seconds off of my boot time. If you haven’t done something like this, and find your computer being slower than it used to be, try this and let me know how it helped.
You can leave me a Google Voice message by clicking on the link to the right, or email me at ianchristopheryoung@gmail.com to let me know if it helped, if you have any questions or suggestions about the blog.
P.S. This program will run every time you reboot your computer as it controls what applications run and don’t run. Don’t worry.
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