Startup - msconfig

[chaszal]

Hello folks, I'm pretty new to XP, have it OEM on an HP notebook. On Win 98, one ends tasks on all but Systray and Explorer; what can I end task on in XP when I am installing new progs etc? and is there a "safe mode" in XP and if so how do I access it. Thanks in advance.
Chas

[fubar]

If you're talking about ending all programs when installing a new program, it's really not a big problem with XP. What I usually do is make sure I have no windows open and then go to each item in the right corner of the taskbar and right click and select exit or close, or disable, whichever works.

Sometime I will do the control>alt>delete to open up Windows Task Manager. Make sure you have the Processes tab selected and then click on the User Name Tab just uder the main tabs at the top. Doing this will arrange all the running processes by User Name first. Then you should be able to select each one that has your current User Name associated with it and end that process. Be careful not to end the ones associated with System, or your computer may shut down on you. Don't worry, ending these processes is not permanent. They will restart when you reboot.

To get into Safe Mode, when starting your computer, after the Post screen but before you see the Starting Windows logo, continuously press the F8 key. That should bring up the Start Up menu where you can select Safe Mode.

Hope this helps...good luck.

Hmmmm, after re-reading your post I realized you may have been asking about the msconfig menu. If so, just go to Start>Run and type in msconfig, and then go to the Startup Tab, or whichever you prefer.

Sorry for the confusion.

[chaszal]

Thanks for responding fubar. Sorry for the delay in thanking you; I lost track of my own thread. You answered my question in the first part of your answer. The "user name" tab trick should help a lot. Not knowing which were system/essential meant I left everything running that was preinstalled. The misconfig is a whole other ball of wax; I don't recognize most of the startup entries. Hopefully I can whittle it down.
Chas