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Bypass the Startup Items

Most of the time the items in the startup folder are there for reason. These are programs you access frequently or may need running in the background to perform some common task, such as synchronizing your personal digital assistant. For example, if you check Outlook for new email and to synch your appointment calendar every time your computer starts in the morning, why not add a shortcut for Outlook in your startup folder? That way, you can turn on the machine, get a cup of coffee, and return with Outlook front and center. You can concentrate on the tasks at hand, not on launching all your necessary applications.

But sometimes you might want to prevent startup items from running. Such a step could potentially speed up system logon times. Let's say, for example, that you've configured several accounting and graphics applications to launch at logon time, but all you want to do right now is quickly start the computer and check Outlook Express to see whether you've won the eBay auction. You don't need the other applications in the startup directory to launch as well.

Fortunately, it's easy to bypass startup items. Just hold down the Shift key while logging on (most of the time, you'll log on by clicking on your name in the Welcome screen), and XP bypasses items in the startup folder.

If your machine logs you on automatically after booting up, so that you are not presented with the logon screen, hold down the Shift key when you first see the Welcome to Windows XP screen where the user name first appears.

As another example, let's say that you examine the startup items, only to discover that you have put most of the items there. (Many applications' installation routines try to create a shortcut here.) To prevent an application from being a part of the startup folder, just access the appropriate startup folder in Windows Explorer (either All Users or the individual), right-click, and choose Delete. This prevents the application from starting at logon time, but will in no way harm the actual program itself.

Restrict Shutdown

If you're sharing a single XP machine with multiple users, and more than one person is currently logged on, you will receive the following message when you try to shut down the computer:

Shutting down XP is a dramatic event because all recent changes to open files can be lost. During a normal shutdown, therefore, XP tries to store any recent changes to the hard disk before powering down. For example, if you choose Start Shut Down with a Word document open, XP will ask if you'd like to save your document first.

If any other users are logged on, though, they will not enjoy this courtesy . A user working on a Word document, for example, will lose any unsaved changes. That user 's programs are closed, and recent changes are subject to loss when the system shuts down.

Therefore, it can be of great benefit to restrict shutdown ability to just a single useryou. Let's say, for example, that the kids also have a user account because they use the computer for homework and games , but you don't want them to be able to shut down the computer. You can achieve this goal with a Group Policy setting.

To do so, follow these steps:

1.	Click Start Run and then type `gpedit.msc` to open the Local Group Policy Editor.
2.	Expand Computer Configuration Windows Settings Security Settings Local Policies, select User Rights Assignment, and then double-click on the "Shutdown this system" policy setting.

You see the dialog box shown in Figure 3-7. By default, only members of these groups have permission to shut down: Administrators, Users, Power Users, and Backup Operators.

Figure 3-7. Limit the ability to shut down with this Group Policy Setting.

The Users group is all-inclusive, including both your account and the kids' accounts. To limit users who can shut down the system to just yourself ( assuming you're the administrator), make sure that you remove the Users group from this list and that other users of the computer are not in any of the Admins, BO, or PU groups. Alternatively, you could just remove groups, with the exception of the Administrators group, from the list.

And now, the disclaimer: in the previous chapter, I mentioned that Group Policies are not supported on XP Home computers. Therefore, you can't restrict system shutdown on an XP Home system.

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