I’m no expert in operating system but i learned something new today while attempting to troubleshooting for my problem. my windows media player has been popping up every time i turn on the computer. i’ve been ignoring it since it didn’t really hurt anything. but just recently another software named “sychost.exe” under systems32/helpefa starts to load during my windows xp start up too. the annoying thing tries to connect to the internet so i get my zone alarm alert and a prompt for internet connection every time my windows starts. what’s worse? sychost.exe doesn’t shut down when i shut down the computer so i have to click on “END PROGRAM” pop up every time i shut down. i still haven’t figured out what is it for. i finally got fed up and decided to figure out a way to stop my windows from loading it at start up.
here’s how you do it. there are many “unknown” programs gets loaded during your window start up. to test if it’s ok to NOT load one of them during your start up. go to START -> RUN and type in MSCONFIG. in the new screen, click on the start up tab and uncheck the programs you don’t want your windows to load during start up. exit and restart.
view my screenshot of MSCONFIG
i didn’t get any error when i’m back after i unchecked media player. so no idea what it’s like if you do XP. anyway when you are back, you should get a warning about how the windows is running under “selective startup” mode. click ok and then the start up tab again. on the screen, find where the particular software is located in your registry. most of them would be under
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\RunOnce
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\RunOnceEx
and
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\RunOnce
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\RunOnceEx
but somehow mine is under HKEY_CURRENT_USER/SOFTWARE/MICROSOFT/WINDOWS NT/CURRENTVERSION/WINDOWS weird! (btw, “HKLM” stands for “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE” and “HKCU” stands for “HKEY_CURRENT_USER” if you haven’t figured it out)
now go to START -> RUN and type in REGEDIT, browse to the place where your software is located and delete its value on the right.
that should make the program disappear in your msconfig window. and next time you start your windows, the software should not be loaded any more. at least it worked for me.
good luck trying it out if you have similar problems 🙂
Pure-Essence.Net 
Hi Dodo, i chance upon your site a week ago n has been your reader ever since … just wanna tell u thanks coz this piece of info u shared have helped me greatly as it speed up my startup faster than before, it’s those little convenience that u’ve makes life alittle easier for me …. =)
thank you for the note. glad it helped.
i’ve never had that happen… i wonder what it is.
omg thank you I love you. That thing helped me delete some of the annoying programs that start up by itself in my computer! thanks so much dodo!
aww I wish I could try that but I’m scared that i’ll screw up my registry like I did before. I should just reformat..haha.
Heh, thanks dodo. Your tip really works. I’ve been trying to disable some start up software via control panel for a while but they keep coming back. Now they’re really gone for good. ^^
That’s what we call a “Clean Boot”, good approach to keep your computer running faster.