Now those applications have become worthy software components of their own. One of those programs that have been developed and tweaked over the years into a robust and very useful application for many users is Startup Cop 4, which is now celebrating it’s 10 Year Anniversary.

PCMag’s computer apps program, which started out as a free reader perk, has churned out some top-notch utilities over the past two decades. In particular, Startup Cop Pro has become the de facto standard for Windows startup management.  Startup Cop Pro celebrates ten years with an anniversary version—Startup Cop Pro 4—now available for download.  Full details below and at http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2346165,00.asp.

If you’re system is running slowly, the first question I ask is how many applications are starting up and sitting in the system tray just waiting on the chance that you’re going to use it during this session while you’re working.

Gain control over how you think you’re system is trying to be helpful. Use Startup Cop 4 to find out what’s happening and either allow it to continue, or shut it down at the source.

Post from: EveryJoe

Startup Cop Pro 4 – 10th Anniversary Edition

Startup Tab of MSCONFIG control in Windows XP Pro

If you’re running Windows XP Professional there’s a really easy way to configure at the operating system level what applications have set themselves up to run on startup and to disable them.

Just follow these steps:

1. Go to Start > Run
2. Type in “msconfig” in the window (minus the quotes) and click “OK”
3. Click on the “Startup” tab
4. Scroll through the identified programs and uncheck the programs you don’t think you need automatically starting up every time Windows starts

Be careful not to uncheck anything you’re not too sure about. The programs that you’ll probably want to turn-off should be easy to identify and uncheck.

Post from: EveryJoe

Configure System Startup Settings

During work, e.g., we open a web browser – because we are so used to it – but more importanly have several other programs opened simultaneously. While navigating from Microsoft Outlook to Eclipse to the work folders using Alt + Tab, it is irritating to find Mozilla Firefox in between. Also, the task bar has only this much place.

Still, most of the web browsers like the Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox continue to ignore our need for a “Minimize to system tray” option (Opera provides the option). And we don’t always know the registry hack to minimize Microsoft Outlook. Trayconizer comes to our rescue.

The “Mozilla Firefox” icon sitting in my system tray is not a photoshop gimmick. I used a miniscule utility called Trayconizer.exe to minimze Firefox to the system tray. It is only 10.5 KB in size and, hmm, doesn’t need installation.

All you have to do is invoke the target program, Mozilla Firefox in this example, through the utility. The easiest way to do this is to set the target of a shortcut you use like this:

Replace “C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe”
with C:\Downloads\Trayconizer.exe “C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe”

It may not be possible to Trayconize all programs and I am not sure if it works on Windows Vista, but it seems to work well enough on Windows XP. You can download it here. The page shows that the utility hasn’t had a newer version in over 5 years.

Image Source: Screenshots taken on my laptop running Windows XP.

Post from: EveryJoe

Trayconize Any Program to System Tray

Microsoft has a knack for spreading misery in simple ways. An appreciable quality during Christmas time. A recent example is the “updated” Microsoft Office Outlook versions which stopped carrying a “Minimze to system tray” option from the Tools -> Options.

I spent way too much time under the presumption that it may have just been moved to some other incovenient location because it immediately didn’t register in my mind that I had a Microsoft app before me. Why exactly would someone take pains to remove something already existing and working normally can be a philosophical debate that can take us all the remaining days of this year and more. And I don’t wish to do that for this vacation. I should probably be thankful to them because this is their way of offering me another blog post.

So. There is a way around. Thankfully.

1. Open the Registry Editor (Press Win+R, type “regedit”, Enter).
2. Navigate down the tree: My Computer -> HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Software -> Microsoft -> Office -> <Version-Number> -> Outlook -> Preferences. <Version-Number> is the version number of the Office you are using and can be found in any Help -> About of a Microsoft Office application: 10 for Office 2000; 11 for Office 2003, 12 for Office 2007.
3. Create a New Value of type “DWORD Value” (through Edit menu or right-click). Name in MinToTray. Modify its Value Data to 1 to enable system tray minimization.

You should be able to minimze Outlook to the system tray now.

P.S. This is a fairly straight-forward thing to do, but you might want to save the curent registries (export) before tweaking.

Image Source: Regedit Screenshot taken on my laptop.

Post from: EveryJoe

How to Minimize Microsoft Outlook to System Tray