MSCONFIG: These items are unneccessary

Submitted by Rick on May 12, 2006 - 11:37pm.

We talk about the Microsoft Configuration Utility (msconfig) so much, that we have a t-shirt available for it in our store. Msconfig is accessed by:

  1. Click Start
  2. Click Run
  3. Type:   msconfig
  4. Click OK

Once in the utility, you want to click the "Startup" tab. Here is a list of some the programs that can be safely unchecked. After doing so, click OK, and restart the computer as instructed and your computer should run just a little better.

  • jusched - Java update utility
  • realsched - RealOne Player update  utility
  • qttask - QuickTime system tray icon
  • realplay - automatically starts RealOne Player
  • Microsoft Office Fast Start - a starter program to help launch Office applications a hair faster
  • Anything Adobe - Adobe Reader is used so seldom, that having it start its utilities every time we start our computer is a waste of precious computing cycles and resources
  • Sonic Update - update utility for Sonic CD burning software
  • Kodak Updater - This update utility from Kodak really eats at performance
  • Music Match or mmplayer - an audio player that has no business starting automatically
  • iTunes Helper - especially if you don't use an iPod. If you do own an iPod, it isn't a necessary program to run at startup
  • AOLSP Scheduler - And anything else labeled with AOL...again,  unnecessary to start all this stuff at startup.
  • Microsoft Works Calendar or Update - neither should start at boot up
  • Money Express and/or Agent - related to Microsoft's Quicken like program "Money"
  • Qagent - Quicken utility
  • Quickbooks Update - Quickbooks updates can be initiated from Help in the Quickbooks program. 
  • Tkbell - related to RealOne player
  • Iomega - related to Iomega external or internal drives and how icons are displayed
  • Reminder - Greeting card programs of various brands. If you don't use the reminder program, uncheck this box. 

These are the most frequent programs we come across that do NOT need to start automatically. Unchecking the boxes in msconfig has absolutely no effect on running the actual programs. For more information on what the heck is starting up automatically on your computer, check out this easily navigatable list.