Problems with Msconfig?

Question

I have XP home edition, and was attempting to clean up my startup programs, when I attempted to click apply or ok it gave me the message "An Access Denied error was returned while attempting to change a service. You may need to log on using an administrator account to make the specified changes", even though I'm on the administrator account (since I only have one account)

Apperentley after that, it applied the changes anyhow and restarted my computer. However when my computer restarted, it was in a Windows Classical Scheme, not in XP and won't let me change it back. Also it seems all of my Restore Checkpoints were erased, So I can't reverse the changes.

Obviously there is something wrong. Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

According to your description,there may have some regsitry errors in your PC to cause this".You need to clean you PC.
Every time you install and uninstall software on your computer you create junk in the registry.You need to scan and clean your PC with registry cleaner.
There are some comparison and review of registry cleaners.
http://www.registry-cleaners.info
You can download and scan your PC for free.

Answer 2

I think what I would do would be to do a "repair" install of XP. That should restore the msconfig utility and what was running at start up.

Put the XP Cd in the drive and then reboot your pc. When it comes up and asks if you want to "repair" and installation or install a new copy of XP, select "repair" and follow any on-screen prompts.

Additionally, I quit using msconfig and I use a program that is called Autoruns. Microsoft just bought up the company and hired the owners and the program is now available from Microsoft.

In case you were trying to improve overal speed and performance of you PC, I'm including my standard avice for doing so. The Autoruns link and info are about half way down.

A major cause of slow PC's is fragmentation of the hard drive.
You need to defragment the HD at least once a week if not more depending on how much you use your computer, and what you do with it.

One way is to use the defragment utility built into Windows XP. It is slow but does the job rather well. Go to:
Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools and then click on System Defrag to run the tool. It may take several hours, so let it run overnight or simply walk away from your PC for a few hours.

A great program for defragging automatically is Diskeeper. It costs $30 but is well worth it. Go to http://www.download.com and search for Diskeeper. Read the Publishers Description and the Editor and User reviews. It can be scheduled to run automatically as the program deems necessary, and if you are using your PC and the program launches itself, it will take a backseat to whatever you are doing and give you the priority for CPU usage. I think you'll agree it's a good program to have. It precludes your needing to remember to defrag at regular intervals.

Another major cause of a slow PC is programs that are running in the background. Here's another really good Microsoft tool. It’s called Autoruns and it was written by SysInternals who were recently bought up by Microsoft.

Before you download the program create a folder under program files called Autoruns. Leave Windows Explore open.

Launch Internet Explorer and go to the following Microsoft web page.

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

Go to the bottom of the page and download the Autoruns program. After it downloads open the file. It is a Zip file. Unzip the file and you will see 4 files. Drag and drop those 4 files to the Autoruns folder you created under Program Files.

Once you have the 4 files in the C:\Program Files\Autoruns folder you can double click on the file titled “autoruns”.

This will bring up a window with several tabs at the top. Click on the “Logon” tab. It will list the programs that are running on your PC and eating up resources. Look them over carefully and turn off any that don’t absolutely have to be running. Simply click on the “check mark” in the little box beside the program name. Clicking on it will remove the check mark. Once you have edited the Startup list, click on Apply and then on OK.
NOTE: Leave items that show Windows; System 32; Program Files; etc. alone. Shutting them off may cause some things not to work.

Once you have exited the window, reboot your PC for the settings to take effect.

WARNING: Don’t go into the other tabs and start deleting things. You will probably give yourself major headaches if you do that. Stay focused on the “Logon” List only.

Another good thing to have is a little program called FreeRAM XP Pro. It is free and is available from http://www.download.com This program puts a little RAM meter on the System Tray and shows how much RAM you have remaining that you are not using at any given time. I think you may be surprised at how little RAM you have to run other programs. Also, once it is installed you can right click on the little meter, then click on RESTORE and it will open the RAM display window. You can tweak the settings so it will display your CPU usage also. Then just click “Minimize” and then “To System Tray” to return to the Task Bar.

What happens when you run out of or run real low on RAM is that the OS recognizes the low or no RAM situation and starts using a section of your hard drive as memory. This is called virtual memory, or a swap file. The PC is constantly writing and reading from your HD. Comparitively, it is a very slow process. Check your motherboard manual and determine how much RAM each slot can hold. It will also tell you what type of RAM you need. You can also go to http://www.crucial.com or http://www.4allmemory.com and run their analysis utility to determine what kind and how much RAM is installed in your PC. Depend on your MoBo manual to determine the RAM limits of each slot though.

Hope this helps