Everytime I startup my computer programs from Real Player (realsched.exe and realevent.exe) and Quicktime (qttask.exe) are started up. I wanna get rid of them, but I can’t find the options that do so.
Oh yeah, I also get a program called “gamechannel” that is from wild tanget. How do I get rid of it?
Disclaimer: IANA computer geek.
Assuming you have some version of Windows (you didn’t say what OS you’re using)…
You can disable things from starting up every time you turn on your computer. This doesn’t uninstall them or delete them, it just stops them from Starting Up.
Click on Start, then Run, then type in
msconfig
and tell it Okay.
Click on the tab that says Startup. This brings up a list of everything that loads when you turn on the computer. CAUTION!!! Be extremely careful what you unclick in this list–if you unclick the wrong thing you can screw Windows really bad.
So scroll down the list to where it says RealPlayer and Quicktime and unclick them. Then click on Okay or Apply. Then close.
Then restart your computer and see if it helps. Remember, it doesn’t uninstall them. If you want to uninstall them, go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, and see if they’re on the list as having an Uninstall.
Never heard of Gamechannel, but the same things apply. If it’s in msconfig you can unclick it, and if it’s in Add/Remove Programs, you can uninstall it.
Addenum …
If you are feeling adventurous, your can just enable systray and nothing else. It works for my computer.
What DDG said will work.
Alternatively, you can try the configuration options for Quicktime and Realplayer. Here are the ones which apply to the versions I have.
Quicktime: go to the Windows control panel and click on the Quicktime icon. Select “browser plug-in” from the drop-down menu. Uncheck “Quicktime system tray icon”.
Realplayer: select “view/preferences/general”, click on the “Start Center” “settings button”, then uncheck “enable Start Center”.
As for WildTangent, it kept on interrupting my defrags, so I just uninstalled the damn thing.
Also, get yourself a decent spyware scanner. I won’t be surprised if you’ve picked some up after installing those two programs.
While you’re at it, you can disable almost everything in the startup list while running msconfig as DDG describes. Very few programs in that list are actually required, and NONE are required to boot up. (No, SYSTRAY is not required.)
It will make your computer run faster, take up less RAM, and boot quicker. I have found most computers off the rack have 20-60 programs in their startup group, courtesy of the manufacturer. These occupy gobs of RAM space and CPU time. Get rid of 'em.
Exceptions: Anything that you want to ALWAYS be present before you start using the computer, like virus scanning, firewalls, network software, etc. should be left in the startup group. Makes sense, eh?
Caveat: The above applies to Win 95 and 98 fersure. I haven’t tried cleaning out XP startup stuff completely, but I suspect it is similar.
And, after you disable stuff and reboot, run msconfig again. If anything you previously disabled is now checked, suspect virus. That is a typical virus trick.
In windows 95, NT, 98, 2000, XP and ME you can edit the registry but running the REGEDIT program (there is no icon for it, just type it in in the OPEN box from the Start, RUN menu. Be very careful in the registry. Go to the H_KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE,SOFTWARE,MICROSOFT,WINDOWS,CURRENTVERSION,RUN key. There you will find all of the programs that launch upon startup. Once again: Be Careful, don’t delete anything you are unfamiliar with.
Apparently that’s not a universal statement. In the machine I am using this minute (Win 98), there is NOTHING in the RUN key folder. My firewall is invoked in the RUNSERVICES registry folder, yet it shows as checked in the startup group in MSCONFIG.
Well, you can try al of the stuff listed above, but before you do, you might want to check out Start -> Programs -> Startup. If any of these applications have items in this folder they will start up every time Windows Start.
Remove these first before doing any othe the other things people have suggested.
Sysinternals has a cool little app (actually lots of cool little apps) called AutoRuns
that shows everything that gets loaded at startup:
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/s....shtml#autoruns
It offers a “JumpTo” feature that will go to that item (most likely in the registry,
but it will also go to anything in the startup folder(s)).