how to stop programs on startup in task tray. and how to make more roo 1

[adamspencer2007]

1. how to stop programs on startup in task tray. autoexec.bat?

2. how to make room on hard drive , i have ridden it of any big media, emptied the recycle bin, i have 80 gig drive and i do not seem to have much on it but is still at 77 gigs, where is this unwanted stuff hidding.

3. is it safe to do the disk clean up utility or check to compress drive to save space

 

[eyec]

go to Control Panel, use the Software Explorer to modify Startup Programs.

as for the missing 3 gig, do not worry about it, the system usually takes up that space.

i would not compress with 99% of your drive free.

 

[1101doc]

I suggest using a Start-up control manager. There are several excellent free utilities that offer this as part of the application. I feel that every system admin should have Sysinternals Suite of free tools on hand, and Autoruns will do nicely:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/sysinternalssuite.mspx

Get the whole package. You're going to really like Process Explorer--think Taskmanager grown up and back from college. For a less complex,more graphical UI, consider What's Running:

http://www.whatsrunning.net/whatsrunning/main.aspx

(free for personal use, modest 25USD for commercial use)

Yes it is perfectly "safe" to use the Disc Clean-up utility, but the "compress old files..." takes forever and is really not that effective. You can save a ton of space by either turning off System Restore, or reducing the % of disc that it is allotted. Controls in System Properties>System Restore tab. The size of the Recycle bin can also be reduced or eliminated through its properties.

A strategy of Drive Imaging using Acronis or Ghost should be in place in any event, so system restore would be redundant. A very low impact "recovery" tool is ERUNT :

http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/

ERUNT completely backs up the Registry, and each file contains its own .exe to restore the Registry without reference to the original program. Tutorial :

http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/erunt.txt

 

[gpalmer711]

The way I read the original post is that 77gig of the drive is in use and only 3G is free.

If that is the case then use the FREE Folder Size from

http://rotebetasoftware.net/wp/freeware/folder-size

to see which folders are taking up the space. Once you know which folders they are, if you are unsure how to proceed let us know what the folder(s) are and we can advise you.

Greg Palmer
Freeware Utilities for Windows Administrators.

http://www.palmersoft.co.uk