Viewing Revo Uninstaller, there are eight applications listed as automatically running at windows startup, although only a couple were intentionally instructed to do so. Are any of the following programs advisable to autorun at startup?
TkBellExe Real Networks Scheduler
iTunes Helper
Adobe Reader Speed Launcher
Adobe ARM
Quick Time Task Apple
ctfmon.exe CTF Loader Microsoft
i would not load any at start up, unless you have a tablet then load ctfmon.
Also, uninstall Adobe Reader completely, and install something like FoxIt Reader, instead.
Adobe Reader is a slow, bloated pig riddled with constant security holes.
Okay. What is a tablet, and what’s the purpose of ctfmon?
I haven’t heard of FoxIt, but Adobe does seem to slow my computer.
a tablet type computer. the ctfmon does input from other than a standard keyboard and mouse.
Hello there,
the only start up program I’d keep is Foxit, essentially a lightweight version of Adobe reader.
Otherwise follow the standard rules of cleaning up pcs, ie run ccleaner first to identify the extraneous data and then run a decent defragmenter, ‘jkdefrag’ is my current favourite but I could be corrected?
Generaly any program that has the word ‘helper’ is rather like the unwanted guest in the kitchen who interferes and interupts when all you want to do is enjoy your party.
Try the micromart forum if you need advice from PC people with brains the size of planets, OK so it’s not SDMB but we can’t all be specialists;)
Peter
I previously would have recommended this, but the latest version of FoxIt has been crashing heavily on me lately. And it’s about as slow as Adobe, besides.
I’m going to experiment with rolling back to version 4, if I can find it. Until then, I’m stuck using Adobe.
Okay, I"ll check out that forum. I don’t want any unwanted guests such as ‘helper’. I used to like the free AVG, but it became more of a virus when it started taking over my computer. That was awhile ago and I can’t remember exactly what caused me to dump it, but I don’t like Norton or McAfee either.
I haven’t had any problems or performance issues with the latest version of FoxIt on Win7, but if you are, you might try Sumatra PDF, which is a free open-source, no frills PDF reader with an emphasis on speed and small footprint, so it should be good for older or slower systems.
Version 5.0 and earlier have security issues that were patched in 5.02
I have not experimented with Foxit lately, but I certainly agree with those who say do not use Adobe Reader (at least not as your default PDF reader), and I would be especially leery of going to an outdated version. It is a conduit for malware.
Personally, I have been very satisfied with PDF-Xchange Viewer, and I recommend it. It has some nice free markup tools that neither Adobe nor Foxit (when I last tried it, anyway) have.
Unless the computer is very old and slow, it should not be necessary to have “speed launch” programs loaded for any of these. (Well, I can’t say for sure about Foxit, but I doubt it.)
“ctfmon” is also needed for dual language input from the keyboard.