OT - Windows Vista or Computer savvy people question

[Mark Bolton]

Hello,
I have seen many great computer tips/solutions here and was wondering if anyone knew of a way within windows or with some sort of home made/free application or process to launch a set of core programs when you start a computer? When I start up my laptop here at the shop I go through a routine of booting up, and then start all the programs that run all day, web browser, mail, Quickbooks, sketchup, and so on.

Is this as simple as adding these programs to the startup list in MSCONFIG? Is there a down side to doing this?

To really get crazy there is likely no way to have the browser launch with a set of tabs open for all favorite sites? SMC, woodweb, my homepage, and so on?

Just always thought it would be nice to hit the button when I come in and when I come back from filling my coffee all my "stuff" is sitting there loaded and waiting for me.

Thanks,
Mark

[Dan Hintz]

No need to go through the trouble of MSCONFIG... just drag and drop the program icons into the start folder.

[Greg Portland]

Dan is correct for programs (just add the icon to the startup folder). For websites, what web browser are you using? For Firefox you can enter multiple websites into your home page delimited with the "pipe" symbol. Specific directions are here: http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2010/03/firefox-multiple-home-pages/

It may also work in the newer (tabbed) versions for IE?

[Rich Engelhardt]

Or - just use the power settings in Windows control panel...

My Win7 64 bit system is set to "Go to Sleep" after 15 min of inactivity. I simply get up and walk away from it every morning leaving everything open. When I return to it in the evening, I hit the power button to "Wake it up". Everything comes back up just where I left off with it.
I usually leave a browser (IE) open with 3 to 12 different tabs - SMC, G-Mail, Yahoo Mail, Facebook, various other forums I belong to etc. - all logged in. Since my wife and I share the Yahoo email, one or the other of us gets booted off at some point. I've had no issues staying logged in here @ SMC for weeks at a time nor any other forums which require a log in.
<tip - - if you do go this route, make sure you set your forum profile to "invisible" as a courtesy to others so they don't assume you to be online and try to IM or PM you and expect an immediate response>

My newest PC is a three month old Dell Laptop.(The Win7 64 bit mentioned above) I left the power settings in control panel at their defaults. The "instant on" experience is hard to let go of once you get used to it. So hard in fact that I left the default settings just as they were because it's worked so well.

My work laptop is running Vista 64 bit. For a year, I never shut it down, I just left everything open and put it in "hibernate". After a year it developed some issues with my profile and I had to redo it. No big deal for me, but, if you aren't a bit computer savvy, profile issues can be a show stopper.

My old (~ 5 years old) XP Media Edition HP Pavillion didn't fair so well with the "sleep" or "hibernate". In fairness, I don't believe it was the fault of the Windows as much as it is/was a lack of system resources.

[Dan Hintz]

Two issues with Rich's suggestion:
1) Some programs (FireFox, unfortunately, is one of them) will slowly eat memory over time (it's not a memory leak with FF, it's designed to make things "faster"... and many many many have complained it does just the opposite).
2) If you use the "What's New" button on SMC, you will lose out on any posts from the time you last looked until the computer goes to sleep... in the middle of the day, that can be up to a page's worth of posts.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Dan,
Since I don't use either (FF or the What's New) - it's been a non-issue w/me.
I'm also sitting pretty "fat" w/memory right now w/3GB on my Dell and my Lenovo.
My old HP only had 1GB and it was too grossly swamped towards the end.

Good to know though for future reference.
Next August when I retire I won't have to limit my browser to IE.
I only use IE now because 99% of my customer base does.

[Mark Bolton]

Wow, thanks, I figured it had to be something simple. I have gotten away from the fine details of computing/windows for several years. I am running Google Chrome for a browser. I dont know why (have no good reason) but I just shut down my laptop nightly. I use to take it home with me to work each night and shut it down for the trip home and then re-started at the house and I guess its just a hold over from that. I am covered up with work so its going to be going back and forth with me again so that routine will likely resume as much as I would rather it didnt.

Thanks again, going to have a go at it right now,
Mark