Make Windows Faster by Killing Useless Tasks

The longer you own a Windows-based computer, the slower it gets. Oftentimes you download applications that load on startup that you don't even know about. If you installed iTunes or an iPod, for example, on startup a few "helper" programs will load into the system and use up valuable RAM.

Personally, I'd rather the "helper" programs only load when I plug in my iPod or start the program manually. While many programs let you specify their startup behavior, some simply don't. Also, in many cases I'm just too lazy to go in and adjust the preferences of every program. I'd rather piece together a batch file that will shut every useless process down on startup.

Here's how you can cut down on active processes on Windows startup.

1. Create a new text file and name it something like "taskkiller.bat".
2. Put this file in your "Startup" folder in the Windows start menu.
3. Cut and past the following into the file:

::
:: Windows Startup Task Killer
::
:: 1. Control-Alt-Delete to bring up task manager
:: 2. Click on Processes tab
:: 3. Go down the list and Google each process
:: 4. Figure out if process if vital or not
:: 5. Add non-vital processes to this list
:: 6. Put in your "Startup" folder in the Start Menu

taskkill /F /IM iPodService.exe
taskkill /F /IM [YOUR PROCESS HERE]
taskkill /F /IM [YOUR PROCESS HERE]
taskkill /F /IM [YOUR PROCESS HERE]

4. You can add processes to kill to the list by going to your task manager and googling individual processes. There are tons of sites that will tell you if a process is a vital piece of Windows or if it is just fluff.
5. Save the file and it will run every time you start windows.

By doing this on my work laptop I've cut out over 150 MB of useless processes and freed up memory for important stuff like crunching SPSS files. Some of the processes I've killed include touchpad drivers and proprietary monitoring processes that don't do anything immediately useful.