Helen, you have to be the "judge" of what you need running at "Start-up". The best way to examine what is there and running is to use the System Configuration Utility in Windows. You can open this utility by clicking START|RUN and then typing msconfig in the little window to the right of "Open:". Then click OK. When the utility opens, click the STARTUP tab. You will now see displayed all the programs which run at Start-up. Browse through this list and see what you need or don't need. If you feel you don't need a particular program running at Start-up, just remove the "tick". To see just which application a particular item belongs to, just expand the column headed COMMAND. When you are finished, click OK. Just remember, this is not deleting a program from your computer. All you are doing is removing it from running at start-up. One of the reasons so many programs get to run at start-up is that they configure themselves to do that by default when you install them. So to prevent this happening in the future always look for the option, when installing a program, that allows you to block this happening (if you don't want it to happen, that is). Any new program likes "to think" it is the "most important" thing you have installed and therefore it will take over your computer if given half a chance :-)! Lance P. S. Check out Legacy Family Tree today! This full featured genealogy program can be downloaded FREE at http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Index.asp?mid=52583ii -----Original Message----- From: helen ware [mailto:helenware@comcast.net] Sent: Friday, 29 April 2005 11:22 PM To: SENIOR-NEWBIE-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [SR-NEWBIE] start up My computer runs slower than it once did. I have done a lot of cleaning but the menu that comes up when I press "ctl/alt/delete to close programs is so long, I would like to know how I can find out if all these programs are needed and how to get the unneeded ones off when computer is started up. I noticed this when cleaning and defrag. It says just don't close Explorer and sys-tray. All help welcomed. Helen ==== SENIOR-NEWBIE Mailing List ==== Keep informed of the latest news and new databases, webpages and mailing lists at RootsWeb. Subscribe to the weekly RootsWeb Review. To subscribe, start here: http://newsletters.rootsweb.com/ ============================== Search the US Census Collection. Over 140 million records added in the last 12 months. Largest online collection in the world. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13965/rd.ashx -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.10.4 - Release Date: 2005-04-27