Controlling Windows Vista Startup Items

Controlling Startup items - whether on a Windows Vista or Windows XP machine - can have a big impact on system performance. The goal is to reduce those Startup items to just those you really, really need. Otherwise, they just take up resources that can/should be directed towards other computing tasks.

There are actually a couple of ways to do this.

1) You can view the Vista Startup folder using Windows Explorer - although it's a pain in the ass.

Here's what you need to do to manually edit the startup items for an individual user with the Windows Explorer interface.

1. First, enable viewing of Hidden folders and files.
2. From a Windows Explorer window, choose Organize | Folder and Search Options.
3. Click the View tab.
4. Choose the 'Show hidden folders and files' option.
5. Now, use Windows Explorer to navigate to this directory:

C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

A long way to go, but once there, you can see what programs are included in the users Startup directory, and make deletions/additions as you see fit.

You won't see the AppData folder unless you're displaying hidden folders and files.

A simpler method, however, is to choose Start | All Programs | Startup. You can then right-click on the Startup folder and choose Explore. You will then open a Windows Explorer window on the user's startup folder.

2) Use Windows Defender's Software Explorer. To get to the Software Explorer, open Defender and choose the Tools. You'll now see the Software Explorer link.

From here, you can choose Startup Items in the dropdown list. Select a program, and then choose either Remove or Disable. Note, however, that some programs won't allow you to do either one from within Software Explorer.

Control behavior of Vista's Indexing Service

Opinions abound about the Vista Indexing Service and whether or not it slows down system performance. Unfortunately, much of the discussion I’ve seen is anecdotal in nature, with some users reporting that Vista is speedier than XP, and others reporting that it is dog slow.

Personally, I like the Indexing Service. It helps me quickly locate content on a Vista machine without a folder hierarchy doing the job for me.

But the Indexing Service is not something you add, as was the case with Windows XP and the Windows Desktop Search. Rather, it’s built into the Vista OS, and runs by default. For those who want to try out life without the Vista’s Indexing Service, here’s how to disable:

Method One:

1. Open the Control Panel and then choose ‘Uninstall a Program’ from the Programs grouping
   Now, select ‘Turn Windows features on or off.’
2. From this dialog box, you can disable the Indexing Service

Method Two:

1. Disable the Windows Search service using the Services MMC snap-in. If you type ‘services’ into the Vista Start Menu, it should come up.
2. Locate the Windows Search service, then choose ‘Disabled’ as the startup type. You should also Stop the service for it to take immediate effect.

Method Three:

1. If you’d like more selecting control over the Indexing Options, open the Control Panel and locate the Indexing Options application (or you can type ‘index’ from the Start Menu – the Indexing Service should help you locate it in the list of Programs. Ironic, huh? From here, you can remove locations you use rarely, or remove all locations altogether.
2. It is also possible to disable indexing for a certain drive or enable it only for selected folders. You can do this by changing the Properties of a drive or folder (right click on drive letter in Windows Explorer).

You can always switch back later if you want.

Don't just Gmail - Better Gmail instead.

A new post every week. That's how it works from now on. And an extra bonus with this one: two posts.

The first - passing along a valuable tip/tool for users of Gmail. It's called Better Gmail, and you can get the download from LifeHacker. I've tried it out on both a Mac and PC, and it will work across platforms.

The catch is that you have to be using Firefox, which you probably should be using anyway. Downloads for the Firefox browser are here.

Once Better Gmail is installed, you'll configure it by using Tools | Add-ons, selecting the Better Gmail 2 extension, and then clicking 'Preferences.'

I won't go over each feature; you can read the whole thing at the LifeHacker link I included. The most useful feature is not enabled by default, however: it's the 'Show Agenda' button on the General tab, which will place your Google Calendar agenda right next to your Gmail inbox.














I'll have lots more about gmail v. outlook v. google calendar v. windows live etc. in the weeks that follow. Let me know if there's anything in particular you'd like answered.

tribute to dfw

This post doesn't have anything to do with computers, but it's a good way to break the inertia of this blog and get the thing officially off the ground, where it has sat for far too long...

It's with great sadness that I pass along the news of the death of one of my favorite authors, David Foster Wallace. For those curious, there's a good obit on the NPR site.

And, if you are familiar with the work of dfw, you likely already know why I have called the blog section of theanswerhub 'Notes and errata.' It's a feeble homage to the author who has influenced my writing more than any other. 'Notes and errata' is the title of the 100-pg-or-so endnotes section of dfw's signature work, Infinite Jest.

If this blog post inspres you to check out IJ, - use two bookmarks. If, on the other hand, you want to introduce yourself to Wallace's writing in a bit more digestable manner, let me highly suggest one of these two items:

1. The title essay of "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never do Again," which covers a vacation week spent aboard a cruise ship. It's quite possibly the funniest thing I've ever read.
2. The title essay to "Consider the Lobster," which I read aloud to my (then) 7-year old son, who loved it as much as I did. Consider the Lobster does just that: it ponders the fate of lobsters during the annual Maine Lobster Festival.

I've had the good fortune to have publishers glue together and print about 2500 pages of my writing over the last ten years. And even though I write mostly books about computers, Wallace's work has influenced every one of those 2500 pages. When writing, I often make conscious effort not to just directly ape dfw style of writing,1 but I suppose there are worse sins that a writer can commit than slipping into rote emulation of his favorite author.2

He's also done some great work about John McCain, about talk radio, about Bryan Garner's Dictionary of Modern American Usage, and - although writing about tennis and the 100th-ranked player in the world - about the grind of all professional sports for those not at the very top of the pile.

Thanks, David. Your obervations about the sublime and the banal will be missed.

1 - As further proof of how a) postmodern, b) self-aware, and c) heavily influenced I am by dfw's work, I submit the following: I can even recall with some clarity one of IJ's endnotes on the whole originality subject by memory. It goes something like this: "Has Hal Incandenza ever written a single original thought his entire life?"
2- like I'm doing now, badly.