Jim Albrecht

A: One obvious step is to reduce the number of programs that load at boot-up. These include diagnostics, favourite applications, and unnecessary modules inserted by installation programs.

Deciding which programs to keep is a matter of judgment, for the most part. For example, you want your antivirus program's background autoprotector running at all times, but you don't need to load the whole antivirus program and scan your hard drive every time you boot.

To find start-up programs, select StartòRun, type msconfig, and press <Enter>. This takes you to Windows 98's System Configuration Utility. Click the Startup tab. You'll find a list of commands, each with a check box (see FIGURE 1). Uncheck any you think you might not use (you can always go back and recheck them later). Repeat the process in the Autoexec.bat and Config.sys tabs (if they're empty, that's fine). When you're done, click OK, reboot, and then see how much time you've saved.

Not enough? Defragging your hard drive every other week will also help to make your system boot faster.

Finally, your system start may be slowed by a large font collection. To trim the number of fonts loading at boot-up, select StartòRun, type fonts, and press <Enter>. You can then drag selected fonts to another folder to keep them out of the boot process (they'll still be available should you want them). For more on handling fonts, see "Manage Your Fonts" on page 124 in our November 1999 issue.

-Lincoln Spector