Minimum Required Programs in Startup Menu

[haplyss]

I have an ASUS CM5570 Computer with Pentium Dual Core CPU, 2.60GHZ each, 6GB Ram, & a 630GB HDD running Vista Home Premium 64. What is the minimum required programs that have to be on the System Configuration Startup Menu on boot up? I want to have the least programs, as possible, running in the background at boot up. In Windows XP Pro it was easy. All I had to do was to leave SysTray checked and remove the check from all other listed programs. I can't figure what a lot of the list programs are. Not being sure I will not chance doing this without guidance from someone in this forum. Thanks!

 

[whs]

The answer is none. But I would leave the security programs running. All programs that are in the startups will be called when needed - even if they do not run initialy. But on the other hand, I do not see a real problem with your configuration. With 6GBs of RAM there is no hurt from a few startups. They will be just sitting there in your page file (or even in RAM) and do nothing as long as they are not needed. They will not use any CPU cycles if not being used - it is just for a faster start in case they are being called upon.
I usually recommend to reduce the startups for systems with little RAM (e.g. 1GB). But in your case I would not see any need to act.

 

[lemur]

I have an ASUS CM5570 Computer with Pentium Dual Core CPU, 2.60GHZ each, 6GB Ram, & a 630GB HDD running Vista Home Premium 64. What is the minimum required programs that have to be on the System Configuration Startup Menu on boot up? I want to have the least programs, as possible, running in the background at boot up. In Windows XP Pro it was easy. All I had to do was to leave SysTray checked and remove the check from all other listed programs. I can't figure what a lot of the list programs are. Not being sure I will not chance doing this without guidance from someone in this forum. Thanks!

Using WMIC command, you can easily create a very nice HTML-based report of those programs that automatically start up on your system. You can then print the report to have on hand as you investigate whether you can safely eliminate any of those programs.
To create the report, open a Command Prompt window and type the following command:
wmic startup get /format:hform > startupreport.htm
When you do, the report will be created in a matter of moments. To access the file, just type the following:
open startupreport.htm in your browser.

 

[VaguelyRapt]

Generally speaking, items you can uncheck in the startup menu are not necessary for the computer to run per se. Though some of these may be stuff you rely on while using your computer. For instance, on my system, I uncheck everything except for my graphics and audio drivers and my firewall. If you're asking about the list of programs in your startup menu, that depends on what you have installed on your computer.

When you run your system in safe mode, that basically means that it doesn't run anything from the startup menu, and disables almost all of the services as well, and safe mode is usually the most reliable startup. You shouldn't worry about unchecking anything - worst case scenario, you go back and check them again.

If you want help on deciding what's good or not good to uncheck, you can post a list or screen shot of your startup menu items, and I will be glad to help you decide. Also, a quick Google search of each item can tell you precisely what each item is.