BleepingComputer.com: unable to disable startup items with syst. config. utility

Hi all,

I was going through some items in the system configuration utility/startup folder. I tried unchecking some ones I did not want starting up. But on reboot, they are all back checked. Happens every time. And in a related issue, there were a few items that in place of the name, just had empty boxes and the description had Windows NT in the filename. I unchecked those too. But now, after every bootup, I get multiple windows I have to cancel that say the file (name is those empty boxes) can't be found. I don't knowingly have or use NT but I think something related to it may have been downloaded with a Windows update. Any idea how to permanently shut those off from running at startup and what the deal is with those NT files?

I had also consulted the list with the names of some of the files that are on my startup list to see if they were required but am slightly confused that some show up as a regular file but also as a malware item, with the same name. So I'm also wondering if I have the legit item I want to disable at startup, or the malware version.

Thanks for the help.

'msconfig" shouldn't be used as a startup control tool.
It's for troubleshooting only.

There are some other utilities to control startups, like Quick Startup: http://www.glarysoft.com/qs.html

Thanks for the info. I had been told by some other folks that msconfig was the exact way to do that. But, I did take your advice and tried glarysoft. It did a better job. There was one item in the startup list under msconfig that did not even show up on the glarysoft list (related to a realplayer sceduler) but the second time i tried it, it was there. So I pretty much was able to handle what I wanted to. However, those box items are still there and keep coming up during the start.

Those entries are not being removed permanently, but as long, as their respective boxes are unchecked, they won't run when your computer boots.