Topic: I need some PC technical help...here's what's wrong

[Lexxon]

I have a couple problems, I was wondering if you guys could help out...

#1 - Something on my computer isn't running correctly. Whenever I boot up, anything that I open will crash soon after because of SOME program. I know its a program because I can use EndItAll to kill everything, and everything runs perfect. Is there any way to tell what is causing this problem? There is no specific time or cause of these crashes, just that when it is closed, the crashes stop. I don't feel like going through all my running programs, either.. Maybe a program can detect this?

#2 - Some text on the internet is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too small, too small to even read it. I can't find a setting to change web text size, and it was changed by a crash, and sometimes when my browser crashes (IE or AOL) the texts jump around. Any idea how to change THIS!?

I know a lot of you are techies, so thanks for any help.

BTW - I ran a virus check on my entire system just 10 minutes ago, and all it found was a "trojan" in some zip file that had just been sitting there in some desolate folder.  I doubt that hurt anything.  If #1 is not fixed, a format is probably imminent.

[Grey Ninja]

For #1, open up the "run" box on your start menu, and type "msconfig".  That will bring up a window with a bunch of system tools.  In the far right tab labelled "startup", you will see every program that is set to load up when your computer boots.  You can safely remove about 95% of those programs without issue.  It will speed up your boot time, and it will make your computer faster after booting.  It will probably also stop your problem with the crashing.  The ones I wouldn't reccomend clearing are "Systray, and RunDLL32)  Pretty much everything else can be cleared without causing serious problems.  If you kill the wrong thing, you can always turn it back on again.

For #2, if you are using IE, it's under View->Text Size->Medium to restore your text to the regular size.  I believe you can also change the size by holding down ctrl on your keyboard, and moving the mouse wheel up and down.

[BrianSLA]

If you do MSCONFIG - DO NOT stop / check Explorer and Systray. Those two have to always be on.  

[Grey Ninja]

I don't think you can stop explorer from booting up in the MSConfig window.  You can terminate it via ctrl-alt-delete, but then it just automatically starts back up again.  It's like a cheap way of rebooting your PC.

[Uglydot]

Hehehe, in XP, it doesn't come back.

[Grey Ninja]

I've done it in XP....  I can't remember if it comes back or not though...  I was going to say that it did, but then I seemed to remember starting it up again from a run dialog.  So you could be right.