I have to admit that I never liked troubleshooting computer problems on Windows Vista computers. Until today I still think that Vista is buggy even after installing the latest Service Pack 2. One example of a problem that I am still facing until today is the latest Nero 9 hangs my laptop running Vista when starting to burn a disc. Yesterday I had to repair a laptop random crashing problem running Vista because it belongs to my boss. Can’t say no to boss right?
It takes time and not easy to find the cause of the crash which happens intermittently because it could be a software problem, could be virus or spyware, maybe the operating system got corrupted, conflict between softwares and finally hardware problem. Since it is my boss laptop, I dare not simply install or uninstall anything. I checked Windows Task Manager and there are a total of 79 processes!
So the first step I did was to disable all third party software and services from Windows startup and let my boss continue using it for a few days. It is possible to do that from Windows itself using the built-in System Configuration Utility (msconfig). Let me show you how.
Go to Start > Run and type msconfig. Alternatively, if you’re not using the Classic start menu, simply click the Windows Orb button and at the Start Search box, type msconfig.
Go to Startup tab and click Disable All button.
Now go to Services tab, check “Hide All Microsoft Services” and click Disable All button.
Click OK and restart your computer.
When Windows has finished booting up, run Windows Task Manager again and there’s only 40 processes compared to 79 just now.
At the General tab in MSCONFIG, there’s a selective startup which I can easily uncheck Load System Services and Load Startup Items but I did not want to use that. Reason is when I disable Load System Services from Selective Startup, it also disables Microsoft services such as Networking, Plug and Play, Event Logging, and Error Reporting. It actually causes more problems if you disable all of the services.
To enable them back, just run MSCONFIG, follow the steps above, except this time use the Enable All button. No harm done and you’d be surprise to know that most of the time a computer problem is caused by software conflicts.
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Knocked my socks off with knwoldgee!
That is a good tip…..
I have been using Autoruns from sysinternals suite….
it is a wonderful utility… it not only gives you info about services which will load up on startup… but also will give explicit information about each and every individuall file (be it dll or anything else) which will load up at startup….
Try it… its a great utility….
here is the d/l link : technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx
By definition Nero is malware and has been since version 6. It calls home even after disabling auto update and send “statistics”. Could be as simple as verifying a license but who knows. That is the definition of malware.
Good post, I too don’t like Vista/7 and dread anyone asking for advice. XP for life! ;)
I agree to the user who suggested you to use Cyberlink Power2Go… a LOT less load to the system…
thanks reymond
Good article Raymond.
I followed the instructions and when I click “disable all” in the services tab, all services are unmarked, but when I click “apply” a service called Gpb Service is marked again, so it seems I cannot disable this service. The manufacture column says “Unknown” to this service. Could this be a virus?
Marcio
Thanks for sharing Raymond.
thanks Ray For Everything
Yes I would have also tried to unload all of the services and startups from msconfig for the first step if I were you. Then I will enable One-by-one instead of enable all of them together after the next reboot to know what causes the conflict.
great tiip
I’ts easy to download a programm called “startup manager” for me the easiest way to have a clean startup.
^_^ even tho i dun use windows, but this is the best recomended way to make the windows boot faster that before. huhu
p/s:URL not URI rite?
Thats pretty interesting stuff.i much prefer to use simpleeasy steps to fix pc problems instead of more software.
you know software to get rid of software thats there already.so basically more software rubbish.
but thats an easy way too do it,i usually use msconfig anyway but didnt think about disable all since i wasnt sure what issues it would cause.
i take it this would work just as well for xp since im not a vista user and all my house got xp.
Thanks Raymond
Use some reliable software to clean your hard drive, I use Comodo System Cleaner and I think it’s good… Try it, it’s free: system-cleaner.comodo.com/download.html
@reeven:
Did you ever use Cyberlink Power2Go?
Use once and you will use forever! as I did…
Check this: cyberlink.com/products/power2go/overview_en_US.html
IMGBURN rocks! While there are many progs to burn single layer DVD’s, when it comes to DL there’s no other application I would use except for IMGBURN.
the best and easiest way IMHO is to use winpatrol….free and lets you do all this and much more from one interface
Nero wanna be all-in-one multimedia application for home & professional users. Nero installer size is going bigger & bigger,more disk usage & memory hogging in the upcoming version. I say, stick to 6.x or 7.x or other freeware burning tools. Cheers Raymond =D
Forget NERO, use IMGBURN, or ASHAMPOO BURNING STUDIO( this one is identical to Nero 6:P)
Thanks Ray, I’ve been having similar problems with Vista!
dared.. ^_^
Thanks for the info as i did this using Glary Utilities which was good too….
Software conflicts is a common problem in rendering unstable windows boot. This methode solve the issues. Thank you for the thread Raymond.