MSConfig is a utility program for Windows PCs. It allows you to view and edit many different settings related to your PC's operation. Many of these settings reside in the registry of your PC. The registry is a database that was created by Microsoft a number of years ago to provide a place to store information about the hardware and software configuration of your PC.

MSConfig is more than just an editor of these settings. After you have made a change using MSConfig it monitors the changes you have made and controls the startup of your system based on these changes.

Show me the program! Many Windows PCs already MSConfig installed. To find out:

1. Locate your Windows menu, then click "Start" (or the Orb if you are using Windows Vista).
2. At this point click "Run"
   If you do not have a "Run" option? Search the internet for how to enable the "Run" option on your start menu.
3. Type "msconfig.exe" (without the quotes) and click "OK".

If that does not work for starting up MSConfig, it may not be on your PC or it may not be in the search path for executing programs. You might try looking in this directory: c:/windows/pchealth/helpctr/binaries (forward slash should be replaced with backslash, ezinearticles doesn't seem to like backslashes) with File Explorer or My Computer. If you find it you can just double-click on the "exe" file to start it. If you do not find "MSConfig.exe" on your machine, then go to Microsoft's website and do a search for "msconfig.exe". Download the appropriate version for your version of Windows.

After MSConfig starts up a window is displayed containing tabs for setting different options. On machines running Windows such as Windows 2000 and Windows XP the window display six tabs: "General", "SYSTEM.INI", "WIN.INI", "BOOT.INI", "Services" and "Startup". On Windows Vista machines the window will display five tabs: "General", "Boot", "Services", "Startup", and "Tools". Microsoft is moving away from using the "SYSTEM.INI" and "WIN.INI" files with Vista. The "SYSTEM.INI" and "WIN.INI" tabs have been removed and a new tab "Tools" is shown. One minor annoyance is that this window is not resizable.

Click the "Startup" tab. This window displays information which comes from different places, but much of the information is from the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run (I have replaced the backslash with a forward slash in this key, ezinearticles does not seem to like backslashes) key in your registry. As I mentioned earlier, the window is not resizable, but at least the columns are resizable. And since some registry keys are quite long you may have to enlarge and reduce the columns to see all of an item. The items that are registry keys (e.g. starting with "HKLM") could be edited with a program called RegEdit, but that can corrupt your registry if you make a mistake.

With MSConfig you will notice that there are checkboxes next to the startup items. Caution! If you are uncertain what these items represent, then just look! If you uncheck an item, it will not be run at the next startup. Unchecking an item does not remove it from your system, it just disables it. If you uncheck an item and click the "Apply" button, MSConfig will prompt you to restart your system or exit without restart. One item that I frequently uncheck are programs that bug me to do an update. These reminder programs consume memory and sit ion my system tray unnecessarily. Apple Quicktime and Adobe Reader are two examples. If you have unchecked any items, then MSConfig will monitor your system at startup thereafter and prevent them from running. One slightly confusing aspect of MSConfig's operation is that it will present you with the option to restart your system or exit without restarting each time your system starts. Ordinarily you will click the exit without restarting option.

If you wish to restore your system to regular operation, then just re-check any boxes you unchecked, click the "Apply" button and MSCOnfig will not run at startup.