Troubleshooting with MSCONFIG

[Bare Foot Kid]

How to use the MS Configuration Utility to Disable, Remove an Entry to Troubleshoot an Issue!​

This will show you how to use the MS Configuration Utility startup file to first, disable an entry to sort out if that is the one causing the issue at system startup / shut down and to remove the entry later if you choose for any number of reasons.​

   Warning

Disabling certain OEM entries from the startup file may cause some factory installed programs and applications to not function correctly. Also removing entries from the Windows registry may disable the PC completely.

If you have any concerns regarding the methods set fourth here, please post a question in this same thread and someone will be glad to help you.

   Note

As a precaution it would be a good idea to create a "System Restore Point" before you start this, the tutorial can be found at the link below.

System Restore Point - Create

Let's get started!

1) In the Windows start menu search box type "msconfig" (without the quotes) then right click the entry and select "Run as Administrator", enter your user credentials for the UAC prompt and click yes. In the window that opens, select the "startup" tab.

View attachment 60135View attachment 60136

Option One

Disable an Entry

2) Now what we want to do is disable only one entry at a time, if we do more than one we won't know which entry is causing the trouble. We'll use my RivaTuner entry, as you can see I've removed the tick from the box, in essence doing this makes RivaTuner not able to "autostart" when the PC is started and in turn if that entry were causing an issue when the PC is started / shutdown I would know that is the one causing the issue and I could take appropriate measures to remedy the situation.

Now go through your entries one at a time, with a PC restart between each one to find the one acting up, when you find it you can just leave it disabled for later use (trial and error) or you can do as in "Option Two" below and remove the entry alltogether; see the Warning above.

View attachment 60139

Option Two

Remove an Entry

3) Let's use my RivaTuner again, in the "msconfig" window I'll click the RivaTuner entry to highlight it and then I'll hover over the "Location" with the mouse cursor to reveal the entry's whereabouts in the Windows registry. As we can see it's at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run, so first in the start menu search box type "regedit" without the quotes and right click the entry and select "Run as Administrator" enter your user credentials for the UAC prompt and click yes.

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4) Now in "regedit" I would navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion and in the left pane click "Run", then in the right pane right click "RivaTuner" and click delete, then for the warning about "Deleting Registry Values" click yes; and now the entry is gone to the four winds never to be seen again.

View attachment 60144
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5) One final thing, as we can see from this last snip not all the entries will reside in the Windows registry, you will have to navigate to where they are to delete them.

View attachment 60147

Enjoy!

 

[Tews]

Thanks for the tutorial Ted!

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Thanks for the tutorial Ted!

Thanks Tom!

 

[Thorsen]

I see this is posted in Chillout Room. Is this supposed to be here? or mistake?

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

I see this is posted in Chillout Room. Is this supposed to be here? or mistake?

It's where it's supposed to be, thanks!

 

[ultraplanet]

I see this is posted in Chillout Room. Is this supposed to be here? or mistake?

It's where it's supposed to be, thanks!

So why're we chillin' with msconfig?

 

[Thorsen]

Excellent tut, BFK!

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

I see this is posted in Chillout Room. Is this supposed to be here? or mistake?

It's where it's supposed to be, thanks!

So why're we chillin' with msconfig?

Because there is another excellent tutorial that deals with the whole subject of msconfig that I didn't know about when I wrote this and I wanted to post it here as a thread to save it for myself.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1401-startup-programs-change.html

Excellent tut, BFK!

Thanks mate!

 

[Capt.Jack Sparrow]

Good Work Ted .. I can save some time typing !!!

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Good Work Ted .. I can save some time typing !!!

Thanks Cap'n!

 

[roduke41]

Can but add my thanks for your abbreviated explanation of use of msconfig, Bare Foot Kid! roduke41

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello again roduke41.




I'm very glad you find it useful, be sure to keep us updated.

 

[karlsnooks]

Bare Foot,
Nice work. An idea, to avoid the perils of registry editing, is to use CCleaner to delete.
CCleaner | Tools | Startup (very abbreviated explanation)

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Thanks, I've been using CCleaner for a long time but that's not the object of this tutorial.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

I just wanted to bring this around again as it may be helpful to some.

 

[jhonrick]

i cant see the attachment.. how can i do it.. ?