Managing Your Startup Programs in Vista

I received a helpful email for all of you Vista users back in March from Jason Faulkner over at PCMech.com discussing how you can easily manage your startup programs in Windows Vista.

Up until Windows Vista, the native tool for managing startup program was ‘msconfig’. While there are more powerful utilities available, this is sufficient for most user’s needs. Windows Vista has done away with this tool and instead has replace it’s startup programs manager with a more powerful tool built into Windows Defender.

Here is how to access it:

1. Open Control Panel.
2. Click on Performance Information and Tools.
3. Click on Manage Startup Programs.

The interface is intuitive enough, but you will notice this gives you significantly more detail than msconfig. Addtionally, you can also see network enabled programs as well as programs which are currently running in the same detailed view by selecting the appropriate item from the dropdown at the top.

While this certainly isn’t as powerful as other tools available, it should be good enough for the majority of your needs.

One thing to keep in mind that if you were wanting to manage your startup programs using msconfig you still can. There is another way to manage them in Windows 7 besides using msconfig but I can’t remember where that function is located. When I find it I will stick it in with the Windows 7 reviews and tips.