what is the shurt word for windows system?

"cmd", i think...

cmd or command will bring up a command box (kinda-sorta a DOS prompt, but not exactly, anymore, on XP and later Windows - does pretty much the same thing, with the same syntax even, just goes at it differently), from which you can launch apps or register/unregister .dll's, start and stop services, run commands directing an app how to run or or whether or not to log, and that sorta thing . I think youngman is talking about is the System Configuration Utility, which can be called up via a Run command of msconfig, then selecting the "Startup" tab in the System Configuration Utility control panel.


Youngman, you can also just click-and-drag a copy of an app's icon or its .exe into your startup folder to get it to launch with Windows, or delete it from your startup folder to prevent it from launching with Windows - mosta the time.

Where's the startup folder in Windows XP?

You'll find your Startup folder in %SystemRoot%:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Start Menu, where "%SystemRoot%" is the drive or partition on which Windows is installed. and <username> is your Windows login profile name.

Another way to go about putting an application into your Startup folder is to go to Start>Control Panel>Taskbar and Start Menu>click the "Start Menu" tab>click the "Classic Start Menu" button then click the "Customize" button. In the "Customize Classic Start Menu" dialog, click the "Add" button.

Click "Browse". In the "Browse for Folder" dialog, navigate to where you have the application you wish to start with Windows installed, usually C:\Program Files\<application name>. Expand the application folder and look for the application's .exe in the list. Highlight it and click "OK".

Back in the "Create Shortcut" dialog, click the "Next" button. In the "Select Program Folder" dialog, highlight the Startup folder and click "Next". Type a name for the shortcut and click "Finish".

When you get back to the "Customize Classic Start Menu" dialog, you can click "OK" to ghange your XP Start Panel to the "Classic Start Menu" or click "Cancel" to keep the XP Start Panel, as you prefer. Either way, the shortcut to start the selected app[lication when your computer starts will be in your Startup folder.

i think that msconfig is the one that i am looking for.

however, i think that the particular one that i am looking for has "sys...." in it?

Thanks, Timber

Yer weccum Infra.

youngman, you might be thinking of sysedit. My advice is if you can't recall its name and aren't sure what can be done there, why you might wanna do something there, and exactly how to go about doing what it is you wanna do, don't go there. sysedit and regedit are 2 commands you can really piss yourself off with - unless you get a kick outta re-installing Windows.


Edit to add: If you really wanna play with sysedit, This one is fun ... in a twisted sorta way.

Thats correct


Even more CORRECT

you never gave a reason why, i.e slow startup ? something running that shouldn't be,

You have me curious care to expand a bit on this ?


Sure was, choked on my coffee thanks bunches for that Timber

Thanks Don - hey, what can I say? I do this for the fun of it, and I can be a little wierd

And yeah, I agree entirely there are things the general user oughtta be very, very careful with. Hell, I more or less know what I'm doing, what to expect, and why that should be expected, and I still find myself sitting back, forehead wrinkled, exclaiming "Damn! Shoulda known better - sure wish THAT hadn't happened! Now I gotta whole buncha work to do."

after i tried those 3 commands again i think tat msconfig is the one that i am looking for.

thanks.

Figured that was the one you were after. Glad we could help - and please, be real careful with those other 2 - its really easy to really screw things up with either one. The System Configuration Utility (MSCONFIG) will let you royally screw things up too, but you gotta work harder at it - it even argues with you when it thinks you might be working above your paygrade

I think some older Windows versions (Win98?) had a command called configsys. Maybe that's what you're thinking of?

There's also services.msc in WinXP which controls which windows services run at startup. You access this via the run command. This should only be edited if you know what you're doing though. If you want to try it, this might help: Elder Geek Guide to Services

Also, as Timberlandko said, if you're just looking to add a program to your startup list, you can just drag it to your 'startup' folder under Start>All Programs.

Actually, "configsys" is a DOS command, not strictly native to Windows; in Windows, the roughly equivalent command is "sysedit", and as already mentioned is among the commands best avoided by the uninitiated.

Ah, you are correct, thx. I knew it was something like that. DOS is like some distant memory to me at this point.....

I gotta lotta memories in the "dim-distant" category - I get the ol' mental "File Cannot be Opened" error from time to time