Java is a great programming language and is often required by many Windows programs however, the Windows Java runtime installs a program that sits in your system tray and looks for updates and generally wastes CPU cycles and system memory. If you are at a work computer and/or use your computer to make many calls via Skype you may need to keep Skype running while you are at work. This is why I prevent Skype from running on startup. Rather when you are online with Skype make it mean that you are at your computer and ready to talk if someone wants to call. After all you are probably not sitting at your computer all day anyways so if Skype is running while you are away people will be trying to call you. If I know that I will be expecting a call from Norway at a specific time I turn it on a few minutes before I expect the call.
The way I use Skype is to turn it on when I need it. Skype is a program that many people use and want as a startup program because they cannot accept incoming calls unless it is running. After all Quicktime is only a codec and doesn’t need to be running anything in the background of your computer ever! This is only one example of course.
When I want to watch a movie I will open up my media player and play my movie. I have no need to have Quicktime running in the background collecting information about me and causing my computer to use unnessesary CPU cycles. With that in mind when in doubt get rid of it. In more cases than not there is no need for a program to be running in the system tray and it is safe as well as recommended that you get your system tray to be as minimal as possible. Chances are that you have some programs in your system tray that you don’t even know what they do. You then can decide if that little messaging program is absolutely necessary to run every time you start your computer. You will usually find your startup programs hanging out in the system tray (Lower right hand corner near the clock-You may have to click on the expand arrow to see all of these programs if you have many) Your needs may vary so I will give a few examples of what I would consider a waste of resources from startup programs. The only running program I tend to have on startup on a Windows machine is Anti-virus. If you are unsure what the program is hover your mouse over the icon and a tool tip will tell you what it is. Make a mental note of what they are or write them down if you have many. You may have one or two or maybe a bunch. When your computer is finished starting up don’t open any programs just notice the icons in the lower right hand portion of your screen. An easy way to do this is to save whatever you were working on and restart your computer. OK, the first step is to identify the programs that are running themselves when your computer first starts up. The computer user can then retain the option of running something at any time, while removing it from the startup process. Note: this howto is not about removing any program components, only preventing them from running on startup.
If you frequently start or restart your computer you will find that you will save a lot of time and your minimal time invested will be well worth your trouble. This annoying problem can be easily solved by investing only a few minutes of your time to identify the programs running on computer startup and prevent them from running. The problem is that all of these programs and processes take up memory, CPU time, and other resources that can significantly slow your computer.
Most computer manufacturers including Dell, are notorious for pre-bundling unnecessary software that runs in the background of your system. More and more, programs are inserting themselves into the startup process so that every time you turn on your computer all sorts of unnecessary programs are running in the background without your permission. This can be very frustrating to the user. So you start up your computer only to wait 5 to even 15 minutes for Windows to fully load before you can go ahead and use your computer. Startup Programs and Removing Them Written by Mark Sanborn: Aug 9, 2007