One of the pains of Windows is how long it takes for an older PC to start up. Sometimes this can be caused by hardware problems like a faulty hard drive, but more often than not the culprits are all those programs trying to activate at boot.

As you install more programs on your system, you inevitably end up with more apps that want to insert themselves into your PC’s startup routine.

Some of those operations are critical and shouldn’t be turned off such as antivirus, but many are really unnecessary. I suppose it’s nice to have Google Now alerts and Hangouts on your desktop at boot, but I think I can wait until I turn on Chrome to find out the latest World Cup scores or chat with friends.

Before Windows 8.1, figuring out which programs were causing start-up problems was not as easy as it should’ve been. That’s why programs that promise to speed up your boot times—like CCleaner and Soluto—have flourished.

In Windows 8.1, life is much simpler thanks to a new addition to the Task Manager.

Here’s how to maximize your startup time and find out which programs are slowing you down in Windows 8.1.

Don’t worry, Windows 7 users: There’s a way for you to trim your startup bloat as well.


Windows 8.1

Microsoft built into the Windows 8.1 Task Manager a fantastically easy way to check your Startup programs. Hit Control-Alt+Delete on your keyboard and then on the next screen select Task Manager with your mouse.

Now you’ll be kicked back to the desktop. Inside the Task Manager window click on theStartup tab. Next you’ll see a list of programs that turn on when you boot up your desktop.

What we want to focus on is the Startup impact column and those with a rating of “High.” These are the programs we’ll want to consider disabling at startup.

Keep in mind that any programs you disable have to be manually started later on if you want to use them. An antivirus program will inevitably have a high rating, but it would be unwise to disable it at startup since you want it scanning your PC all the time.

Don’t worry, you’ll have no trouble finding programs to dump. For myself, I went after BitTorrent Sync, which is a great program, but I don’t use it enough to justify always having it on. BlueStacks, which lets you run Android apps on Windows, is also an unnecessary item for me at startup.

Other programs that felt my wrath were Google Chrome, Google Music Manager, and MP3 Skype Recorder. Once you’re finished with the “high” impact programs, you can also take a look at the ones with “medium” impact to ferret out other startup offenders.

Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide which programs get dumped at startup. As a general guide, don’t disable stuff that works in the background, comes from a component maker like Intel or your PC manufacturer, or is a mission critical app such as antivirus.


Windows 7

The first thing a Windows 7 user should do is click Start > Startup and see what’s there. This folder houses all the third-party apps that activate at start-up. If you see anything you don’t want right-click it and select Delete.

Another option is to get a window similar to what Windows 8.1 users see via the Windows System Configuration Utility. The name alone sounds scary, so if you are not comfortable with this step, don’t sweat it. Just download a program like the ones mentioned at the top of this post to clean up your PC for you.

For those brave enough to sally forth, click Start > Run and type msconfig in the box that appears. Once the configuration utility starts up look under the Startup tab.

Unlike Windows 8.1, Windows 7’s approach is far less friendly to look at and doesn’t include any helpful startup impact information. This is really a window for more advanced users. However, if you find programs like Google Chrome, QuickTime, and Skype in the list, feel free to disable those by unchecking the box next to their names.

One thing I would not recommend disabling if you often connect an Apple device with your PC is Apple’s “iTunes Helper.” If you disable this, it won’t turn on by itself and can lead to hassles every time you want to sync a device with iTunes.

It can take a few minutes to figure out which programs should be disabled on your PC. If you take the time,  the benefit of shaving those few extra seconds off your boot time is worth it.

We are very excited to have finally launched our new website after a few months in development! You’ll see things are looking pretty spiffy around here and it’s all been completely re-coded from the ground up. Head on over to www.GreenMountainGeek.com and check it out.  Let me know what you think!  Below is an updated list of solutions we can provide to you or your business.

• Laptop Repair
• Desktop Repair
• Computer Upgrades
• Virus Removal
• Data Recovery
• Networking
• Backup Solutions
• Training
• Virtual Solutions / Cloud

• Managed Services
• IT Consulting
• Web Design
• Web Hosting
• Networking
• Remote Support
• Emergency Services
• Software
• Gaming Computers

Facebook may boast 1.28 billion monthly active users, but the social network isn’t for everyone. Maybe you don’t find it all that useful, or you’ve received one too many FarmVille requests. Or perhaps the June 2014 disclosure that the company messed with users’ News Feeds as part of a research experiment proved to be the final straw (even if monkeying with News Feeds is what Facebook does all the time). Whatever the reason, you’ve had it with Facebook.
So how do you make a clean break? You’ve got two choices—deactivating your Facebook account or deleting it outright.


Deactivate your account
Click the downward arrow to access the Settings menu in Facebook. From there, you can deactivate or delete your account.

Deactivating your Facebook account puts it on hiatus: Your profile will be removed from the site, as will most of what you posted to Facebook (though messages and other things will stick around), but Facebook will retain your data in case you decide to come back. You can always reactivate your account later by logging in to Facebook.

To deactivate your account, log in to Facebook, and select the settings menu in the upper-right corner (represented by a downward arrow icon). Choose Settings from the menu, and then on the next screen select Security from the list along the left side of the window.

Once there, click Deactivate your account toward the bottom of the page. Facebook will try to guilt you into staying by showing you photos of your Facebook friends, and then ask you why you want to deactivate your account. Once you tell Facebook why you don’t want to be friends anymore, click the Confirm button, enter your password one last time, and Facebook will proceed to deactivate your account.

Kill your account altogether
Deleting your account, on the other hand, kills it completely: You won’t be able to log back in to retrieve or view anything you’ve posted to Facebook, and if you want to use Facebook again, you’ll have to start from scratch. Facebook recommends that you download a copy of the data you’ve published to the site before you delete your account. Open the Settings menu on Facebook while logged in to your account by clicking the downward arrow icon. Next, select Settings, and on the General Account Settings page, look for Download a copy of your Facebook data and click the link. The service will then guide you through the process of downloading an archive of all your Facebook data.

The company doesn’t make it immediately obvious as to how to delete your Facebook account, but to do so, log in to Facebook with your account, and then visit Facebook’s account deletion form to carry out the process.
Keep in mind that once your Facebook account is gone, it’s gone, so you should delete your account only if you’re really, really sure that you won’t use Facebook again.

Microsoft’s Windows OS could play a crucial rule in returning worldwide PC shipments to modest growth next year after multiple years of decline, Gartner said on Monday.

PC shipments could reach around 317 million in 2015, increasing from 308 million units expected to ship this year, the research firm said in a study. Shipments this year are expected to decline by 2.9 percent compared to 2013, which is lower than previous yearly declines.

The “revival” of the PC market will be driven by upgrades of old business PCs with Windows XP, which are no longer supported by Microsoft, said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. He estimates that roughly 60 million PCs will be upgraded this year.

Businesses are largely upgrading to Windows 7 and avoiding Windows 8, which is viewed more as a tablet OS. Microsoft could release a new OS sometime next year, which could supplant Windows 7 as the OS of choice for businesses. However, it takes time for companies to test and deploy PC OSes, as happened with Windows 7, which took more than a year to find a foothold in businesses.

Counting PCs, tablets and smartphones, Gartner said overall shipments of computing devices are expected to reach 2.4 billion units this year, increasing by 4.2 percent compared to the previous year. Shipments will further increase to 2.6 billion units in 2015.

Tablets in the passing laneAfter the first iPad shipped in 2010, tablets were increasingly adopted as alternative computing devices to PCs. Gartner is projecting tablet shipments to increase to 256 million this year, up from 207 million last year. Tablet shipments will reach 321 million in 2015, overtaking PCs, Gartner said.

Tablets will get cheaper and more functional, Atwal said, adding that these trends will continue to drive adoption in the coming years.

Worldwide mobile phone shipments will be 1.86 billion units this year, rising by 3.1 percent compared to the previous year, Gartner said. The worldwide growth will continue in 2015, with shipments totaling 1.95 billion units.

Android will continue to be the dominant OS across devices, according to Gartner. The OS will be installed in 1.17 billion devices shipped this year, an increase of 30 percent. Apple’s iOS will receive a boost from the new iPhone due later this year, and the company’s iOS and Mac OSes will be in 271 million devices shipped this year, increasing by 15 percent compared to the previous year. Microsoft’s Windows desktop OS and Phone OS will be in 333 million devices shipped this year, rising slowly from 326 million the previous year.

But Windows will be in 373.7 million devices shipped in 2015, overtaking the combined shipments of Apple’s iOS and Mac OS, which will be in 301.4 million devices, Gartner said. Android will remain the dominant OS, installed in 1.37 billion devices shipped next year.