Acer Laptop

[SUSZANNAH]

Hi has anyone an Acer laptop? there are so many things Acer have put on at startup and have no idea what they are for so need to get rid of some if no use:

1 is a catalyst thingy...whatever that is?

Have realtek studio .......don't know how to stop it, dont even use it

the empowering thingy no idea what to do with that, just want it to run like my desktop

sorry if i sound dull on this........     

[CharleyO]

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I can't help you much but if this Acer Laptop has ATI graphics card/video, then Catalyst is most likely the UI/drivers for the card.


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[SUSZANNAH]

ahh yes it has , is it safe to stop from startup?
It just sits in notification area and glares at me     

[.: Mac :.]

Catalyst is the graphics card drivers. i would not remove them unless you are sure windows has a driver built in for your card

[CharleyO]

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If you stop it at start-up, your graphics may not work correctly. I have a friend that has an ATI card and will ask about hiding the icon.


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[Vladimyr]

Once you know the name of the startup, Pacs Portal http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_index.htm has a link to a comprehensive guide http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php
e.g. Ati2cwxx.exe

For some ATI video cards. Probably used to access features and may not be required - for example the ATI Radeon works fine without it

[timcan]

ahh yes it has , is it safe to stop from startup?
It just sits in notification area and glares at me     

Hi, have you tried to hide this icon in the taskbar properties settings? There is an option to 'never show'.Hope this helps.

[FreewheelinFrank]

This page may be useful:

http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/

What it removes:

http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/removes

You might actually want to keep some of this crap pre-installed trial software, so look at each item found and consider if you really want to keep it- deselect any you decide to keep and let the program remove the rest.

[CharleyO]

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In regards to the ATI card Catalyst program, I guess you're referring to the icon in the task bar? You can get rid of the icon by opening up the Catalyst Control Center and going to the Preferences tab at the top of it.  You just uncheck the Enable System Tray Menu. After that, when the icon's gone,  if you need to use the Control Center, you will have to access it by going into "programs" off the START button.

I hope this helps!   


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[SUSZANNAH]

Thanks everyone for all the info, just fired laptop up and went to 'msconfig' seems I have 27 items in startup.......

Don't even know where to start with them all   lol

[DavidR]

Google is a start point on the startup item name or the file name at the end of the location.

However 27 is extra ordinary, there are only 6 in mine.

There are many applications that on installation want to run on startup, unless it is a security or absolutely essential you should be able to uncheck some after investigation.

You could post a screen shot of some that you are unsure of, expand the columns to see the file name in the Command column, see image.

[SUSZANNAH]

Have looked in Franks link at pcdecrapifier, nothing there that I have......  


I have things like:-

RTHDCPL
ALCMTR
AzMixerSel
ntiMUi   etc etc    

[SUSZANNAH]

have screenshots but don't know how to get them in here??

[Snagglegrain]

Spybot has a nice tool that some may not even realize is there.

System Startup allows users to see what is starting, and offers pretty good detail on each by highlighting, then clicking on the vertical button between panels.

It also gives you the ability to disable unwanted items.

[DavidR]

You could also do a HiJackThis log and copy the contents into one of the on-line analysis sites, these usually also report a legit application but is not essential to run at start-up.

On-line analysis - HiJackThis Log file - On-line Analysis OR HiJackThis Log file - On-line Analysis 2

One of the most common applications for this are sodding media players, etc. and you don't need them until you click on a media file and then they will open automatically.

RealTech/RealAudio is one of the worst in wanting to take over the world and your computer.

It is probably better to google the file name that I previously rather than the startup item name.