Hi Janet! Yes, it can be tricky to locate some of those start-up programs. The easiest way in XP or 98 is to use MSCONFIG. Click START|RUN and in the command box type MSCONFIG. This opens Msconfig at the GENERAL tab. Click the LAUNCH SYSTEM RESTORE button (in XP) or CREATE BACKUP button (in 98) to back up your current settings. Click the STARTUP tab. Scroll through the items configured to start automatically, unchecking those that you no longer wish to have started when Windows loads. Click OK to close Msconfig. Click YES when prompted to reboot your PC. View the system tray to check your work. The unticked items should no longer be showing. These are some other ways to end them. You can right click START and select OPEN from the context menu. In the window which opens you should see a folder called PROGRAMS. Open that folder. In there you will see one labelled START-UP. Open that folder. You may see the programs in there you wish to stop opening at start-up. Just right click and select DELETE (these are only shortcuts not the program). Not all of the programs show in here for some reason. The next option is to start in turn, each of the programs you want to cease running at start-up. Look in its OPTIONS. You should see something like "Start <program name> at Windows Start-up". Remove the selection from that option. There are a number of programs available which allow you to manage your start-up programs. I use one called Reg Cleaner which has as one of its options a start-up manager. Reg Cleaner is still free from this site (only): http://www.worldstart.com/weekly-download/archives/reg-cleaner4.3.htm The main reason I use Reg Cleaner regularly is that it is a quick way to check to see if anything (unwanted!) has been added to my Registry without my knowledge of it happening. It is a neat utility to have on hand. Startup Control Panel is also a nifty control panel applet that allows you to easily configure which programs run when your computer starts. It's simple to use, is very small, and won't burden your system. Startup Control Panel is compatible with Windows 95, 98, 98SE, ME, NT 4.0, 2000, and XP. And it's free: http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml Hope this all helps. Lance -----Original Message----- From: Janet Heck [mailto:jeheck@cox.net] Sent: Wednesday, 7 July 2004 09:33 To: GEN-COMP-TIPS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [Gen-Comp-Tips] Help with Start-up I know there is some place on my computer where I can tell it not to have some programs running in the background on startup. But, I have not been able to find it. I am running Windows XP and have just loaded my Corel WordPerfect programs but don't want them running in the background. Can someone Please tell me how to find this tool so I can turn them off. It is slowing down my machine!! Janet in Baton Rouge, LA --- avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean. Virus Database (VPS): 0428-1, 2004-07-09 Tested on: 10/07/2004 3:11:03 PM avast! - copyright (c) 2000-2004 ALWIL Software. http://www.avast.com