Solved What does NA in StartUp mean?

[visruth]

First of all a Very BIG thanks to aph & adam - I have disabled everything aph suggested & guess what:
the startup time is now 20seconds (from power on to windows start screen/desktop) - KUDOS!

I really googled each one of it as aph suggested and found everything in startup unnecessary except for the Realtek audio manager (which I'm unsure of ),

thereby first I disabled everything from Task manager - but that didn't show up in performance
So, I unchecked each of them from Autoruns & now - the boot time has drastically reduced



One last doubt - how can I completely remove WOT (WebOfTrust app) & CPUZ (there is a CPUZ135 entry in Drivers tab of Autoruns ) ?
I'm not able to see these programs from Revo uninstaller, would it be ok if I uninstall it from Control panel or should I completely get rid of them by using any other programs?

Thanks for all your helps,

 

[adamf]

You could try uninstalling from add/remove programs certainly.

For CPUZ135 it says it is in %temp%. For that you can go to this directory by entering :winkey: + R and then entering %temp% (this will take you to c:\users\<you>\AppData\Local\Temp). From there you can delete everything - ignoring locked files. You can then delete the key.

 

[visruth]

Few things I've done now:

temp & %temp% folder cleanup
uninstalled WOT; CPU , GPUZ , HWMonitor from CPUID; though Control Panel

could see WildTangents HP bloatware providers left over in Revo Uninsatller (had already uninstalled WildTangents few months back though ) - so uninstalled these providers from revo

disk cleanup

Now when I restarted and checked. WOT CPUZ etc are gone from Control Panel

But, still CPUZ135 is present in Drivers tab of Autoruns

I ran a MalwareBytes Scan , nothing found .

So what should I do with the CPUZ135 now, can I just delete it from autoruns?

 

[adamf]

I would. And also clear your %temp% folder.

 

[visruth]

Already cleared %temp%

But,

here is autoruns again:


I tried locating manually the folder from C:\ :


Also, tried locating the path given in autoruns:


In all the folders (which I think is the same as %temp%), with hidden files visible, I could not find the CPUZ135 item

Shall I just clear off the CPUZ135 entry from autoruns or should I do any scans or other things before that?

 

[visruth]

To know if its some kind of adware, spyware I ran ADWCleaner ,

It found this:


I could locate it in the regedit as this:


I think that is no way related to CPUZ ,
Actually I don't know what this new one supposed to be

 

[adamf]

Shall I just clear off the CPUZ135 entry from autoruns or should I do any scans or other things before that?

Just delete it from autoruns. It already says file not found and this is because it isn't there

ADWcleaner I tend to trust and let it delete things it suggests without much thought. It is a separate issue though.

 

[visruth]

Yes adam , thanks again

Cleared cpuz off,
I let adw clean its pup too,
Now it's all done

Is there any problem in doing these kind of deletion, registry clearing, using revo removal etc - what I have just done, I'm concerned cos , will it cause any damage to the SSD? - just a doubt that's all.

 

[adamf]

It will not damage the SSD, no, certainly not.

I wouldn't run any sort of automated registry cleaner though as the performance benefit of deleting a few unused items would be close to zero and the risk of buggering something up pretty good.

If in doubt make a backup before you start. Or make one anyway just to be safe.

 

[Edwin]

@ visruth:
Just a tip: On many Windows applications and Snap-ins, if you right click on column headers and enable all columns, it sometimes helps to know what's going on in your machine.

 

[visruth]

Ok, so that's a job well done then, KUDOS :thumb:
Will back up now

To all those who were helpful & watched this thread - keep helping and increase your knowledge

 

[visruth]

Ok Edwin, didn't know there was a way like that

No worries. I've enabled it

 

[aph]

First of all a Very BIG thanks to aph & adam - I have disabled everything aph suggested & guess what:
the startup time is now 20seconds (from power on to windows start screen/desktop) - KUDOS!

I really googled each one of it as aph suggested and found everything in startup unnecessary except for the Realtek audio manager (which I'm unsure of )

Glad to be of help.. You can remove the Realtek Audio Manager from startup also, nothing is going to happen to your audio. The only function it provides is connector retasking, if that does't sound familiar you don't need it.

What it does is change the power output on plugs so that you can match the ohms on high-end headphones for example, and not get super-low volume.

It doesn't do it automatically, it's a popup that asks you what you just plugged in and it's very rare that it has any effect at all since audio hardware has gone the way of lower resistance in the last decade. I'm waxing a bit off topic here, but you don't need it, and if you ever do, you can just run it.

Hack and slash... wisely.

 

[visruth]

@aph
Okay, I'll do that,
Thanks for that too

 

[visruth]

View attachment 50381

Anything i can do to bring down start up time of windows
What you infer from the screenshots- any unwanted things to get rid off or is it something else?

Yes, here's a rundown from personal experience removing these exact processes from various computers over the years

NCPluginloader - See HPMessageService. Disable.

@aph @adam

I've found the culprit today again when the delayed startup again recurred..i.e., from welcome screen to start screen - it took 20-30seconds now again,

So I checked autoruns & saw NCPluginUpdater is seen as a duplicate entry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce Registry entry, so I had the one I unchecked earlier from it & again same NCPluginUpdater as another entry below that is Checked.

I couldn't see any items in Task Manager StartUp.

The file name is : NCPluginUpdater Hewlett-Packard located as c:\program files (x86)\hewlett-packard\hp health check\activecheck\product_line\ncpluginupdater.exe

I again unchecked NCPluginUpdater from autoruns, closed the program & reopened it and could see only one NCPluginUpdater entry this time that is Unchecked as was there previously.

I think it is scheduled to run a scan or something at sometime, How can I disable it permanently?

When I opened up Task Scheduler - I don't know where exactly to look , but I could only manage this:


The trigger for PC Health analysis under HP Support Assistant menu is given evey Wednesday 3PM, but my scan for it ran today Wednesday at 10:51PM (around the same time I started up my laptop).
I don't know if this is the same thing as NCPluginUpdater though.

 

[aph]

View attachment 50381

Anything i can do to bring down start up time of windows
What you infer from the screenshots- any unwanted things to get rid off or is it something else?

Yes, here's a rundown from personal experience removing these exact processes from various computers over the years

NCPluginloader - See HPMessageService. Disable.

@aph @adam

I've found the culprit today again when the delayed startup again recurred..i.e., from welcome screen to start screen - it took 20-30seconds now again,

So I checked autoruns & saw NCPluginUpdater is seen as a duplicate entry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce Registry entry, so I had the one I unchecked earlier from it & again same NCPluginUpdater as another entry below that is Checked.

I couldn't see any items in Task Manager StartUp.

The file name is : NCPluginUpdater Hewlett-Packard located as c:\program files (x86)\hewlett-packard\hp health check\activecheck\product_line\ncpluginupdater.exe

I again unchecked NCPluginUpdater from autoruns, closed the program & reopened it and could see only one NCPluginUpdater entry this time that is Unchecked as was there previously.

I think it is scheduled to run a scan or something at sometime, How can I disable it permanently?

When I opened up Task Scheduler - I don't know where exactly to look , but I could only manage this:
View attachment 50635

The trigger for PC Health analysis under HP Support Assistant menu is given evey Wednesday 3PM, but my scan for it ran today Wednesday at 10:51PM (around the same time I started up my laptop).
I don't know if this is the same thing as NCPluginUpdater though.

Not uncommon for bloat ware to be buffered from removal by tasks. Just right click the task and click disable. That's it.

if you want a flamethrower type in gpedit.msc and disable run once items

 

[visruth]

aph,

Disabled PC Health analysis & HP Updater from Task Scheduler, hope it'll not come again

Just tried to run gpedit.msc , but throws an Windows error message :


I'm logged in as Admin.

 

[adamf]

gpedit is only in Windows 8 Pro

 

[visruth]

Ok, Thanks adam,
So disabling those in taskscheduler resolves the problem I hope

 

[adamf]

Should stop the task adding them back, yes. You can disable or delete tasks through task scheduler or autoruns as you prefer.